Bosnia-Herzegovina vs Gibraltar Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Bosnia-Herzegovina narrowly missed out on making it to Euro 2016 last year as they finished 2nd in their group and were beaten by Republic of Ireland in their qualifying playoff. However, they can be buoyed by the positive response to this disappointment and their general improvement in competitive football.

Last time out they played out a 1-1 draw away to the vastly improved Greece, following on from wins against Estonia and Cyprus and an expected loss away to group favourites Belgium. This leaves them 3rd in their qualifying group, but they are only three points adrift of Greece in 2nd. The main challenge will be beating them to that playoff position, because in all likelihood the talented Belgium will run away with the group lead.

They won’t be expecting anything less than three points on Saturday though as they come up against the bottom ranked side in European football in Gibraltar. The visitors only started playing competitively in 2014, and their results speak for themselves.

Gibraltar have won one match in their history, which was a friendly win over Malta in 2014. They have since lost 17 of their 18 games, drawing the remaining one and failing to pick up any points in their tournament qualifiers.

During this time they have scored a grand total of four goals and conceded a huge 87 at the other end. Away from home they have drawn one and lost nine of their ten historic games, scoring four times and conceding 46 goals.

Meanwhile, Bosnia-Herzegovina have won five of their last six home games, scoring 16 goals and conceding twice. In these types of games the 2nd half generally produces the most goals as the underdogs get tired and begin to make drastic mistakes. This showed in Bosnia-Herzegovina’s 5-0 win against Estonia when they scored three in the final ten minutes.

Gibraltar’s last three away days have seen 12 goals conceded by them in total, with ten of them coming in the second half. This makes odds of 8/11 for Over 2.5 Second Half Goals look good value, so I’m backing that alongside a 4-0 win for Bosnia-Herzegovina at 5/1.