Northern Ireland vs Belarus Predictions

After eight competitive internationals without a win and a torrid UEFA Nations League campaign, Thursday night’s 2-0 victory over Estonia in Belfast was a significant step back in the right direction for Northern Ireland. Michael O’Neill’s side need to bank another three points here against Belarus to set themselves up for key qualifiers against Netherlands and Germany later in the year, and the bookies rate them odds-on favourites to oblige after that success and Belarus’ 4-0 hiding against the Dutch on match day one.

Whilst Northern Ireland were dealt a pretty tough gig drawn alongside European heavyweights Netherlands and Germany in Group C, the order of fixtures certainly works in their favour as they have an opportunity to rack up points from home and away clashes with Estonia and Belarus before taking on the big guns between September and November.

And after being outpointed in all four of their UEFA Nations League games by Austria and Bosnia Herzegovina to suffer relegation from League B, Northern Ireland clearly needed a soft introduction to the Euro 2020 qualifiers to restore some morale and confidence in the squad.

O’Neill’s men will undoubtedly be feeling much better about life after beating Estonia 2-0 at Windsor Park on Thursday night, although they spurned a number of chances before Aberdeen midfielder Niall McGinn broke the deadlock just before the hour mark.

The points were sealed 15 minutes from time thanks to Captain Steven Davis who netted from the spot following a foul on George Saville, and Northern Ireland set the early pace in Group C alongside Netherlands who put four past a Belarus side who were well out of their depth in Rotterdam.

In contrast to Northern Ireland, Belarus enjoyed their inaugural UEFA Nations League campaign after securing promotion to League C and thus guaranteeing themselves a berth in the Play-offs. But as expected, the Dutch proved to be a cut above the likes of Luxembourg and Moldova who they have been used to facing over the past few months.

Igor Kriushenko’s men simply can’t be judged on their results against such weak opposition, and even though Northern Ireland can hardly be considered amongst the upper echelons of European nations right now, we think that the visitors will struggle here this Sunday.

Ranked 42 places behind Northern Ireland in 78^th, Belarus lost all five of their away 2018 World Cup qualifiers whilst Northern Ireland won four of their five at home – beating the likes of Czech Republic and Norway to nil.

With a solid performance and result under their belt, it’s easy to envisage Northern Ireland comfortably besting both Estonia and Belarus in the first few qualifying match days and we’re backing them to land another victory here via another 2-0 scoreline.