Cyprus vs Bosnia Betting Tips

With Belgium and Wales having secured the automatic qualifying berths in this group, there is a 3-way battle on for 3rd place and a play-off slot. Bosnia are in pole position and will secure it with a win here and a draw would be enough provided Israel don’t cause a shock and win in Belgium.

Cyprus have to win the game and in doing so would leapfrog Bosnia and secure 3rd place provided Israel don’t leave Brussels with all the points. They looked all but out of the qualification picture after successive home defeats in September against Belgium and Wales however a brilliant 2-1 win in Jerusalem on Saturday has given them hope.

That result was celebrated in Zenica too where Bosnia beat Wales 2-0 on Saturday. It meant the Welsh qualified and moved Bosnia ahead of the Israelis. After a slow start they have now won 4 of their last 5 fixtures in the group with 7 goal Edin Dzeko, as ever their main goal threat and top scorer in the group overall ahead of Gareth Bale.

Cyprus have done well to keep themselves in contention with some surprise wins, not least their victory away to Bosnia, way back on match-day one. 9 of their 12 points so far have come away from home though and everyone other than Andorra has won on their visits to the island.

They seem to be a side who enjoy playing when the pressure is off and they may find this tough, especially coming just a few days after they put in a huge effort to win in Israel. They are not used to being in this position whereas Bosnia have plenty of big game experience now and the confidence they gained from negotiating big games and qualifying for the 2014 World Cup should only stand them in good stead here.

They seem to be over their post World Cup hangover and at 5/6 are good value to be the 4th team to come to Cyprus and win in this group.

A draw is no use to Cyprus while Bosnia can’t really be relying on it so this should be an open game with a few goals in it. As the game wears on, gaps are likely to open up and Bosnia’s extra class in the final third should show and you can back them to win 2-1 at 15/2.