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The UEFA Nations League sees some serious action tonight, Friday 12th October.
The main matches are:
Croatia v England
Austria v Northern Ireland
Estonia v Finland
Greece v Hungary
Belarus v Luxembourg
Moldova v San Marino
Belgium v Switzerland
One look at the matcbook bonus code will tell you who are the favourites in each game. For us, Croatia v England is a delicious prospect as it is a rerun of the World Cup semi final. Croatia needed extra time to defeat England 2-1 in Moscow but if truth be told, they were always the better side than England throughout the tournament. Whereas they overcame great obstacles, fortune paved a very easy draw for England towards the semi finals. Spain are also in the group.
The other very juicy encounter is Belgium v Switzerland. Belgium also reached the semi final but the Swiss had a decent World Cup, matching Brazil for most of the way and achieving a 1-1 tie before destroying Serbia with a superb second half performance. They peaked too soon and then lost 1-0 to a drab Sweden side in Saint Petersburg on July 3. Both sides have already hammered Iceland and the Group is between them.
Belgium are fresh off the back of hammering Scotland 4-0 in Glasgow and have a glittering array of talent drawn from the EPL’s top clubs.
There is a very friendly local derby in Tallinn where a massive away support should take the two hour boat trip from southern Finland to Estonia to watch two of the linguistically closest countries meet. In tourist Tallinn, Finnish is the second language you see on posters and is widely spoken everywhere.
In the same Group as Estonia and Finland, Greece entertain Hungary. The Magyars beat Greece 2-1 in the opening game but both are on three points. Greece have also beaten Estonia while Hungary lost to Finland.
In Vienna, Michael O’Neill’s Northern Ireland will visit Austria. Bosnia-Herzegovina already top this group with six points after beating both these sides, The loser may find itself practically eliminated after this fixture,
Belarus should dispose of Luxembourg in Group D2 but the plucky Luxembourgers have six points out of six, recording two straight wins for the first time in their history. If they beat Belarus, their most likely rivals in the group, they will be favourites for promotion.
Molodova host San Marino in the final game in the same group. It is a good chance for the Moldovans to kick start their campaign after losing 4-0 in Luxembourg.
