Belarus vs Slovakia Predictions

• This match is being played in Serbia as Belarus are prohibited from hosting international matches currently.
• Belarus lost eight of their ten World Cup qualifiers, including each of their last three at home.
• Slovakia won 2-0 against Finland, who are ranked 36 places higher than Belarus by Fifa, last time out.

Slovakia should keep White Wings grounded

Slovakia will be expected to beat Belarus with a bit to spare when they meet for this Nations League C Group 3 clash in Novi Sad on Friday. The match has been moved to Serbia as Belarus, because of their support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are prohibited from hosting internationals right now and it will also be behind closed doors.

Removing Belarus’ home advantage probably just about kills off any hope they have of holding Slovakia at bay for 90 minutes in what should be a relatively comfortable mission for Štefan Tarkovič’s side. The White Wings have lost their last seven competitive games, including some wide-margin defeats to the likes of Belgium (8-0) and Wales (5-1).

Even lowly Estonia, ranked 110th in the world, claimed a 2-0 win against them last October and it seems unlikely that a few friendly wins against Asian confederation teams of late would have rebuilt much confidence.

Spark-free Slovakia have a Hamsik-sized hole to fill 

The Slovaks arrive off the back of March’s 2-0 win over Finland, again played at a neutral venue, with a reputation of being hard to beat but often hard to watch too. Defensively they are pretty sound, but they lack any creative spark going forward and the recent retirement of Marek Hamsik has not helped in that regard.

That said, they should find a way to score against this woeful Belarus outfit and one goal might be enough for them to get this gruelling programme of four games in ten days at such far-flung places as Novi Sad, Baku and Nur-Sultan underway.

An ‘away’ win is the preferred bet here but, because Slovakia seem suited to playing on the counter-attack, patience might be required for the goals to come through. Another 2-0 success would seem to us to be the most likely winning scoreline for the visitors.