Belarus vs Luxembourg: Preview and Prediction

Belarus vs Luxembourg
European Qualifiers – 2018 World Cup
Date: Monday, 10th October 2016
Kick-off: 19:45 UK
Venue: Borisov Arena, Borisov.

Belarus were thrashed by Netherlands on a 4-1 to leave them win-less after two matches into the World Cup Qualifying Campaign. They were nowhere near the side that held to France on the matchday and some comical defending cost them dearly. Quincy Promes was the man of the moment for the Dutch side, who scored a double in the first half which was complemented by goals from Davy Klaasnen and Vincent Jansen.

Luxembourg showed good resistance in their Group game against Sweden and eventually fell to their second defeat of the campaign by a 1-0 margin. Their opening fixture was a 4-3 thriller in which they almost forced a draw until the dying seconds in an away trip to Bulgaria. Despite the recent heroics, Luxembourg football team are currently on a 7 match losing streak.

Belarus vs Luxembourg: Head-to-Head Stats

Belarus and Luxembourg will be coming face-to-face for the 9th time on Monday for a qualifying fixture. Out of the previous 8 meetings, Belarus had won 4, drawn 3 and lost 1 against Luxembourg.
While playing at home, Belarus have won in 3 of the 4 qualifiers against Luxembourg while they lost once. They had kept clean sheets in each of the three wins.
Luxembourg have managed to score only 3 goals in their 8 fixtures against Belarus, which also means that they failed to score on 5 occasions.
The teams met for the Euro 2016 Qualifiers and Belarus won their home match 2-0 after settling for a 1-1 draw in the away leg at Luxembourg.

Belarus vs Luxembourg: Prediction

Belarus will be keen to bounce back with a win after the humiliation suffered in the trip to Netherlands on Friday. Besides their good overall record against Luxembourg, they are a side capable of frustrating some big sides when playing in front of their home crowd. Luxembourg haven’t won an away match since 2008 and they are not expected to produce a surprise result in this qualifying fixture.

None of the 8 matches between Belarus and Luxembourg have seen more than 2 goals. Also the teams are known for their inability to make full use of their scoring chances. So under 2.5 goals is a good choice for this match.