Republic of Ireland vs Norway Predictions

• Five of the last six H2H encounters produced under 2.5 goals.
• The unstoppable Erling Haaland is not in the Norway squad for this friendly.
• Ten of the last 14 Ireland home games produced two or fewer goals.

A tight encounter in Dublin

Having missed out on the World Cup finals, the Republic of Ireland and Norway prepare to battle it out in Dublin in this friendly encounter. Games between these nations have largely been dull affairs with five of the last six editions seeing two or fewer total goals scored.

Goals could come at a premium yet again with Erling Haaland given the night off for Norway here, although with the likes of Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard in the lineup, they should realistically still have enough talent to penetrate the Irish backline at least once.

Swansea’s Michael Obafemi will likely lead the line for Ireland as they seek an impressive victory after only narrowly avoiding the drop in their UEFA Nations League campaign. However, this could descend into another lacklustre affair as the home fans are so used to seeing with only four of their last 14 home games producing three or more goals.

The spoils could be shared

With no competitive games scheduled until the new year, Ireland and Norway will take the opportunity to experiment in this game and as such, we predict a low-scoring affair with plenty of changes on the field.

We’re going for under 2.5 total goals with a smaller stakes selection going the way of a 1-1 draw in the correct score market to complete our predictions for this encounter.