Bosnia & Herzegovina vs Republic of Ireland Betting Tips

Bosnia-Herzegovina’s trio of wins right at the end of the Euro 2016 qualifying period wasn’t enough for them to catch up with top two sides Belgium and Wales.

Despite this, they will be happy with their display in Euro 2016 Qualifying Group B, with their second to last match seeing them beat the in form Wales 2-0 to stop them finishing top of the group.

This, and an earlier win over Israel, helped them towards a 3^rd place finish in the group. They eventually finished four points adrift of Wales in 2^nd and five points clear of the 4^th placed Israel. They will be ruing their opening game defeat at home to Cyprus and their loss away to Israel.

These results summarise their poor showing in the first half of the ten match group period, with only one win from their opening five matches. They did manage to get draws against Belgium and Wales though, but they couldn’t do it against the weaker sides.

The second half of the campaign went much better. They won four of their last five qualification matches and saw themselves rise up the table to end in a promising fashion. This form should help them as they play this two leg encounter.

The Republic of Ireland lost out on automatic qualification in the final group game of Group D. They needed a win against Poland to move into 2^nd position, but a 2-1 defeat saw the Polish end three points ahead of them and behind group leaders and World Cup winners Germany.

But their three wins prior to this, including a 1-0 win at home to Germany, helped them finish thre points ahead of 4^th place Scotland.

Republic of Ireland didn’t do too well on the road during this qualification period. They could only manage wins against Georgia and Gibraltar. They lost to Scotland and Poland, with their only truly impressive result being a draw in Germany.

Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the other hand, lost just once on home turf, an opening day defeat to Cyprus. Since then they managed a draw against Belgium and three wins on the trot.

I’m expecting a fairly cagey match on Friday, but I think Bosnia-Herzegovina can get the victory to put them in good stead going into a difficult away match. Odds of 1/1 for a home win look fair as well.