Bulgaria vs Norway Betting Tips

Croatia and Italy are the likely automatic qualifiers in this group but 3rd place and a play-off slot is almost certain to go to either Bulgaria or Norway so this is a crucial game. The Scandinavians are currently 2 points better off but it is the hosts who are favourites to win the game.

However Bulgaria are an unconvincing side and have more than a bit of recent history of failing to deliver when it really matters. They haven’t won any of their 3 home games so far in qualifying for Euro 2016 either and even minnows Malta picked up a point in Sofia earlier in the campaign.

Therefore you have to really fancy Norway to at least get a draw here and they can be backed at 8/11 to avoid defeat. They may have only qualified for a European Championships on one occasion but they are always in the mix and are one of the sides that could really benefit from the expansion to 24 teams.

Norway won 2-1 when these sides met in Oslo in November earlier in the group but goalscoring is often a big problem for them. They are likely to come here with a defensive approach and a draw would certainly represent a positive result and would leave them nicely poised to claim at least a play-off place.

Their two most recent internationals, against Sweden and Azerbaijan in June both ended goalless and you certainly couldn’t rule out a repeat here. Since the retirement of Dimitar Berbatov, Bulgaria have lack a real predator up front and top scorer Ivelin Popov is hardly prolific with 10 goals in 54 international appearances.

Therefore this game could be a tight cagey affair with Norway sitting back and Bulgaria not possessing enough quality to break through and there is certainly value in backing this game to finish 0-0 at 6/1.