Slovenia vs Northern Ireland prediction: EUROPE: Euro – Qualification betting tips on match 2023-09-06 18:45.
The race to qualify for Euro 2024 is hotting up, and with Group H one of just three groups to hold six teams, there’s more competition than most for Slovenia and Northern Ireland. It’s Slovenia who’ve made the stronger start (W2, D1, L1) as they bid for a first appearance at a European Championship finals since 2000, but their momentum has slowed a little since winning their two group openers.
Two winless games since against the higher-ranked Finland (L 2-0) and Denmark (D 1-1) has slowed their push, but with Northern Ireland (#64) ranked three places lower than Slovenia (#61) by FIFA, they’ll hope to get their campaign back on track here. And they should have every reason to believe they can, given Slovenia have won four of their last six home Euro qualifiers (D1, L1).
Such a record could spell disaster for Northern Ireland, who sit six points adrift of the second and final automatic qualification spot in Group H, and are inching closer to yet another failure to qualify. Only once in history have Northern Ireland qualified for a Euro finals, and their quest this time around certainly hasn’t been helped by three successive 1-0 defeats, a run that could yet get worse given Northern Ireland’s hefty injury list.
Boss Michael O’Neill stated it’s the “worst” injury crisis he’s ever had to deal with across his two spells in charge of the national team. But with three wins from the last four H2Hs against Slovenia, the only manager to ever guide Northern Ireland to a Euro finals has history on his side as they seek to emulate the heroes of 2016. And in perhaps a further positive omen, Northern Ireland’s only ever away H2H win came almost 13 years ago to the day of this clash!
Players to watch: Of Slovenia’s current squad, no player has scored more Euro qualification goals than Andraž Šporar (three), two of which served to make the score 1-1. Fresh from a goal at the weekend for Wigan Athletic, Josh Magennis is Northern Ireland’s top-scorer from their current squad with ten international goals. Considering three of his last four were game openers, Šporar may be trying to cancel out Magennis’ impact.
Hot stat: All five historical H2Hs featured two or fewer goals, with no match seeing both sides score.