Slovakia vs Northern Ireland Betting Tips & Predictions

Slovakia are looking like a really capable side at the moment and they will be fairly excited about their prospects in the European Championships. If it goes their way they have every chance of making it to the knockout rounds on their Euro debuts, with both Russia and Wales in their group along with England.

They beat Germany 3-1 in their friendly last Sunday, and although it was a slightly experimental German side that can still be considered a huge success for them. That victory made it seven games without defeat for Slovakia, and five of those have been victories.

The first of these victories was against Luxembourg in their final Euro 2016 qualifying group game, with that result taking their total to 22 points from ten matches and seeing them finish three points ahead of Ukraine in 3rd and only five adrift of Spain.

Slovakia managed to get a win at home to Spain in qualifying as well, and have also beaten Czech Republic, Iceland, and Switzerland to go with their famous wins over Spain and Germany.

Slovakia have a number of really talented players, with Marek Hamsik being the main attacking outlet and Martin Skrtel patrolling the back line. Northern Ireland have less talent available to them, but the whole squad work incredibly hard and that is what got them through to Euro 2016 as winners of their qualifying group ahead of Romania and Hungary behind them.

They only lost one of their ten matches in qualifying and have remained unbeaten in their friendlies since then. This includes draws at Finland and Wales as well as home wins against Latvia, Slovenia, and Belarus, taking their unbeaten run to 11 matches.

Slovakia are a talented outfit though and could prove a step too far for Northern Ireland. They have won ten of their last 13 home matches and are facing a Northern Ireland side who have won just one of their last five on the road.

Slovakia showed their talent against Germany recently and they will want to keep that confidence high ahead of the tournament starting, so I think they’ll get a win on Sunday. Odds of 5/6 for them to get the victory look very good value considering their excellent home form, and I’m backing that along with a 2-0 correct score prediction at 7/1.