Russia to get campaign off to winning start at Malta
Malta vs Russia - 24/03/2021
2766
This week sees the start of the World Cup European qualifiers for the Qatar 2022 World Cup and Malta face a tough opening assignment against Russia who are expected to be fighting it out with heavily-fancied Croatia, for one of the top two spots in Group H.
Malta are expected to be amongst the ‘also-rans’ in Group H which also includes the likes of Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Cyprus.
Although the hosts have gained some recent success in the UEFA Nations League by picking up wins against Latvia and Andorra along with international friendly wins over Gibraltar and Liechtenstein, these have been against fellow minnows on the world stage.
This upcoming fixture against Russia though represents a whole different prospect for the Maltese and in the European Qualifiers back in 2019, Malta lost nine matches on the trot, conceding a total of 26 goals in the process and scoring just 1 in reply.
Malta’s best hopes of scoring perhaps lay with forward Montebello who has scored 13 goals for his club side, Birkirkara, so far this season.
Russia are expected to get their World cup qualifying campaign off to a winning start on Wednesday night at the Ta'Qali National Stadium as they, along with Croatia, are favourites to emerge from Group H and automatically qualify for Qatar 2022.
However, Russia’s recent results in the Nations League haven’t inspired confidence in the visitors despite recording early wins over Serbia and Hungary, as they subsequently crumbled away from home at Turkey and Serbia, losing 3-2 and 5-0 respectively.
It’s now six matches without a win for Russia in all competitions but prior to this slump, they’d won 10 of their preceding 11 matches with eight of these 10 wins also producing three goals or more.
Away from home, Russia have won five of their last eight matches in all competitions with seven of these eight matches also resulting in over 2.5 goals and as Russia are expected to cruise to victory away at Malta in this Group H opener, an away win with over 2.5 goals looks a reasonable expectation.
Russian forward, Dzyuba, has also scored 13 goals to date this term including six goals from his last nine appearances in all competitions and looks the most likely to notch here.
These two teams have met only once before and that was in an international friendly way back in 1996 where Russia beat Malta 2-0 away from home and another straightforward Russian win should be on the cards again on Wednesday night.
Home team
Away team
Pred
Correct score
Avg. goals
Weather conditions
Coef.
Score
Live
coef.
WCQ
92467
2
0 - 1
2.39
13°
1.10
23.00
9.00
1.10
1
1
-1
1 - 3(0 - 2)
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