Poland vs Malta prediction: EUROPE: World Championship – Qualification betting tips on match 2025-03-23 19:45.
[p]Following a humbling 2024 which saw them eliminated from the Euros at the group stage and relegated in the UEFA Nations League, Poland managed to set a more positive tone with a win in their 2025 opener. Granted, their slender 1-0 opening win came against lowly 142nd-ranked Lithuania, but a World Cup Qualifier (WCQ) against a similarly-ranked side in Malta (FIFA #168) offers Poland a good chance to register their first back-to-back competitive victories since this time last year.[/p]
[p]Whatever slight threat Malta may pose will surely be further reduced on Polish soil, where Michal Probierz’s side are unbeaten in 13 of their last 14 WCQ games (W11, D2, L1). With their last three victories in that sequence also coming with clean sheets, Poland look well placed to overcome this challenge on their journey towards what would be their tenth World Cup finals appearance and third in succession.[/p]
[p]Qualifying for the tournament remains an abstract concept for Malta, who have never won more than a single game in any WCQ cycle and kicked off this campaign with a customary defeat in the opener. That 1-0 loss to Finland stretched their winless WCQ run to seven matches (D1, L6), with Malta now conceding 12 unanswered goals since their last strike, which was gifted from an own goal.[/p]
[p]Putting Malta’s chances here into perspective may be the fact that they’ve won just two away games in WCQ history since entering their first qualification run ahead of the 1974 tournament (W2, D3, L51). Over a decade has passed since their last such victory (vs Armenia in 2013), while eight of the last nine defeats in that run came without reply and by multi-goal margins, as did three of the four H2Hs against Poland, all of which Malta lost.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: A goal from Sebastian Szymański, Flashscore’s Man of the Match against Lithuania, could be a good sign for Poland as the national side have never lost when he nets (W4, D1), while he is also unbeaten in his last 29 goalscoring club games. Ryan Camenzuli scored Malta’s last competitive goal from open play in the Nations League, their only such strike across their last six competitive games.[/p]
[p]Hot streak: Malta have been trailing by half-time in each of their last seven WCQ matches.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Matthew Billon[/i][/p]