Northern Ireland Face Supposed Qualification Favourites In Greece

Northern Ireland look to grab three wins from as many qualification games with Michael O`Neill`s men preparing to build on their impressive start, visiting perennial over-achievers Greece in Piraeus tonight (14th October, 19:45). The Northern Irish will view Group F as being their best chance to qualify for their first major tournament since 1986 and made the perfect start in dispatching both Hungary and the Faroe Islands. Greece, who have reached every European Championships since lifting the trophy in Portugal in 2004, have struggled in the opening stages of this campaign with just one point from their first two matches.

Claudio Ranieri`s side failed to respond after a 10th minute effort from experienced Romanian Ciprian Marcia, who was later sent off, put his country on the perfect track to qualification success with a 1-0 win away from home.

Meanwhile, Jarkko Hurme`s on-target volley for Finland in the 55th minute cancelled out a successful first-half effort from Greece`s Nikolaos Karelis. Greece have only once managed to score more than a single goal in their last five matches. The continental island nation can be backed at 20/23 (boylesports) to hit the back of the net more than 1.5 times. Finland hero Karelis is currently priced at 13/5 (paddy Power) to double his tally at any time, whilst the biggest threat to the away side according to bookmakers is Fulham striker Kostas Mitroglou. The 15/8 favourite with Betvictor and Coral to grab the first goal of the match. Northern Ireland had to score two in the last ten minutes to overcome Hungary who themselves only struck with 15 minutes remaining. Both Niall McGinn and Kyle Lafferty made sure that the home nation survived the late scare of Tamas Priskin`s goal. Norwich City`s Lafferty made it two from two in the side`s 2-0 victory over the Faroe Islands, with defender Gareth McAuley opening the scoring in the sixth minute. Potent Lafferty has been priced at 14/1 (Betvictor, boylesports, paddy Power) to break the deadlock though is available at 11/2 (Betvictor, paddy Power) to hit his third in as many Euro 2016 qualification games.

McAuley is set to pick up his 50th cap despite sustaining an `impact injury` after a collision with a goalpost during the early stages of the Faroe Islands clash.

`I can honestly say that goalposts aren`t very forgiving - I thought I`d snapped my leg` The West Bromwich Albion man told journalists. `I couldn`t feel it afterwards, but thankfully it was an impact injury and I was able to continue and score.`

The 34 year old, who has already got his name on the scoresheet for his domestic side this season, continued to say that his milestone number of caps would fail to bring him `any real delight` should the team fail to overturn the Sky Blue-Whites.

In spite of their superior start, O`Neill`s Northern Ireland are the 6/1 (Numerous) outsiders to be celebrating a further win at the end of 90 minutes tonight. Such a defeat could see the team move down into second position. Home side Greece are the 8/13 favourites with Spreadex to recover from their poor opening, whilst a draw is currently priced at 3/1 with both Coral and ladbrokes. Ranieri`s men could move to as high as third should they win convincingly at the Karaiskakis Stadium.

Neither manager is currently troubled with injury concerns and any changes would be deemed as being tactical rather than enforced. The bookmaking trio of 32red, 888sport and unibet all have Greece as the 11/10 second favourites to occupy one of the top-three places come the end of the qualifying campaign whilst underdogs Northern Ireland can be backed at 5/2 with the same establishments.

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14/10/2014     © Frixo 2024