Norway vs Germany Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Norway narrowly missed out on a trip to France in the summer. They finished 3rd in their qualifying group behind Italy and Croatia, although their return of 19 points from ten games highlighted a decent performance from them. However, they couldn’t produce it in the playoff tie with Hungary as they lost 3-1 on aggregate.

They have since played a number of friendly matches to keep their game time up, beating Finland and Iceland, drawing against Estonia, but losing to Portugal, Belgium and most recently Belarus.

The 1-0 defeat to Belarus on Wednesday was a very poor performance from the favourites for the clash, and it casts a lot of doubt over what is already expected to be a very tough qualification campaign. They are in a group with Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Germany, Northern Ireland and San Marino, and. whilst they aren’t the worst team in the group, they will struggle to outperform Czech Republic, Germany, and Northern Ireland.

Germany paid tribute to one of their long time servants on Wednesday as they beat Finland 2-0. This was to be Bastian Schweinsteiger’s 121st and final appearance for Germany, and there were emotional scenes as he was subject to a presentation before the game before being substituted off in the second half to a standing ovation.

It may have turned into a testimonial for the fan favourite, but Germany made sure not to forget the task at hand. Mario Gotze assisted twice as Meyer and Ozil scored in the second half.

It was a confident performance from the world champions, but their relatively stale showing in France will still be playing on their mind. They were outplayed by Poland in the group stages and didn’t look overly convincing as they beat Ukraine and Northern Ireland. The 3-0 win over Slovakia was much more in keeping with their usual standards of play, but Italy took them to penalties before hosts France deservedly beat them 2-0 in the semi finals.

Germany are still a very good side defensively though. They have kept a clean sheet in four of their last seven away matches and are facing a Norway side who couldn’t get a goal past Belarus at home on Wednesday. This was the 7th time that Norway have failed to find the net in their last 12 home games, so odds of 7/5 for Germany to Win to Nil look excellent value. I’m going for another 2-0 win for the visitors at 6/1 for my correct score prediction as well.