Slovenia vs Northern Ireland Preview: Blunt visitors to suffer familiar fate
Northern Ireland face a must-win Euro 2024 qualifier when they travel to Slovenia on Thursday night.
Slovenia vs Northern Ireland: Predicted score
Slovenia 2-0 Northern Ireland
Slovenia vs Northern Ireland: Suggested bets
Slovenia vs Northern Ireland: Lineup
If Northern Ireland didn’t have bad luck, then they’d have no luck at all. They have suffered three consecutive 1-0 losses in qualifying and suffered due to injuries.
Victory against San Marino was to be expected but a 97th-minute equaliser in Denmark was not in the script and it isn’t in the history books after VAR intervened.
Slovenia find themselves fourth in the group on seven points, just two behind second-place Kazakhstan, while Northern Ireland are teetering on the edge.
They could do with a win in Ljubljana, but this does not look like an easy fixture. The hosts have held Denmark here and have beaten Kazakhstan on their travels.
However, they are prone to blunders against lower-ranking sides. Slovenia have lost just three of their previous 23 home matches but have been held to eight draws in that time.
Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Malta and Latvia have all frustrated them in qualifiers and Michael O’Neill’s side will be looking to keep things tight and seize their moment.
They’ve done no worse than come out on the wrong side of a one-goal margin in 21 of their last 23 outings, but that’s largely because they struggle in these types of games.
The hosts are putting together a solid qualifying campaign and while the visitors may frustrate them, it’s worth noting they’ve lost seven of 10 on their travels and conceded at least two in six of those.
