Austria vs Republic of Ireland Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Austria still seem to be suffering from a lack of confidence after their awful Euro 2016 campaign. They lost to both Hungary and Iceland either side of a draw with Portugal to finish bottom of a very open group in France, and to be honest they looked nowhere near up to the standard that their players suggest.

They did manage to get a rather edgy 2-1 win over Georgia in the first of their World Cup qualifiers, but that was by no means a confidence boosting performance either. Since then they have drawn at home to Wales and lost 3-2 in Serbia to make for a very poor start to their campaign.

Considering they are up against the likes of Republic of Ireland, Wales, and Serbia as they contest for the only automatic qualification spot they really need to get back to form if they want to be in Russia in 2018.

Republic of Ireland, on the other hand, have carried on the excellent work they started in France. They made it through the group stages thanks to a 1-0 win over Italy in the final round of games, and although they were eliminated by France they can feel very proud of their achievements.

After this they said goodbye to Robbie Keane with a 4-0 win over Oman, and then followed this up with a rather impressive 2-2 draw in Serbia. Since then they have beaten Georgia and Moldova to put themselves 2nd in the group and only behind Serbia on goal difference.

Considering two of these games were away from home they have actually done really well so far. This makes it just two defeats in their last 11 away days, and although only three of those have ended in victory, it’s still a very good record considering they have faced the likes of Italy, Poland, and Germany during this spell.

Austria have only won four of their last ten games on home turf as well, and considering they are low on confidence I think the visitors have a great chance to get a result on Saturday. Odds of 5/6 for a Republic of Ireland Win or Draw Double Chance are very good value in my eyes, and I’m going for that along with a 1-1 correct score prediction at 11/2.