Weekly Football Preview and Predictions

Last weekend’s Champions League final brought the European club football season to a close and many players are now on their holidays, enjoying a well deserved break. One point that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola made was that the upcoming international matches will result in many of the top players joining up with their national teams and playing Nations League matches as opposed to getting a rest. The usual discussions will arise, centering around debates between clubs and national team management as to which players deserve a rest over these next two months before going again next season. 

Attention now switches to the international scene and the Nations League and European Championship qualification matches in particular, with the next two weeks dominated by fixtures from these competitions. Following that, there is very little senior action but Football fans can continue to be entertained with the UEFA U21. 

A very slow start to the week this week with some low profile matches taking place on Monday and Tuesday. The first of the Nations League fixtures takes place on Wednesday, an interesting encounter between Netherlands and Croatia. Thursday also sees a solitary match taking place, another interesting encounter between two of Europe’s top teams, Spain and Italy.  

Friday is when the main action kicks off as there are twelve matches from the European qualification tournament set to be played. The early kick off sees Finland take on Slovenia and highlights from the later on in the day some of the bigger teams are in action with France travelling to minnows Gibraltar and England also travelling to one of Europe’s smaller nations, Malta. The likes of Denmark, Turkey and Switzerland are also in action on Friday. On Saturday the matches start earlier, with Lithuania taking on Bulgaria and Luxembourg hosting Liechtenstein at 3pm. Highlights from later in the day include Norway hosting Scotland, Belgium taking on Austria and Portugal versus Bosnia & Herzegovina. 

On Sunday there are no European matches of note with some friendly encounters taking place elsewhere around the world. The next round of European matches will take place on Monday. England have a tricker test against North Macedonia this time, whereas France take on Greece and Slovenia host Denmark. Another interesting encounter should be Turkey versus Wales. Tuesday is the last day of European qualification matches and the rest of the week is occupied with some friendly encounters and matches from the Under 21 Championship.

Thursday 15 June – Spain vs Italy

It’s a new start for Spain as this is only the third match for new manager Luis de la Fuente. This is a UEFA Nations League semi final and is a replay of the 2021 semi final, where Spain got the better of Italy to end the latter’s impressive 37 game unbeaten run. Spain went on to the final but lost out to France by the same 2-1 scoreline. De la Fuenta was appointed as a replacement to Luis Enrique who left his post after an unimpressive 2022 World Cup in Qatar. His first two games in charge were mixed, starting off with an easy win over Norway but then losing to Scotland. Italy is a step up when compared to both those teams, and he will be hoping his players can rise to this challenge. 

2022 was a year to forget for Italy as they missed out completely on the World Cup, failing to qualify for the most important event in the Football calendar. They did, however, manage to win their Nations League group ahead of Germany, Hungary and England so there is certainly hope for fans. The task for manager Roberto Mancini is to transfer that form to the qualification matches for Euro 2024. So far, just like their opponents, they have one win and one loss.

There is very little to separate these two sides in recent history, with both teams winning two matches each from the last six played. This information as well as the odds for the match indicate that this should be another tight encounter.

Friday 16 June – Malta vs England

England travel to Mediterranean minnows Malta and will surely be in a very confident mood prior to this match. Malta have never qualified for a major competition and a win against England would be a result that the islanders would remember forever, especially due to their historic ties to England. Last time out Malta narrowly lost to North Macedonia and put up a spirited performance at home to Italy as well as managing an away win in a friendly against Luxembourg. Malta have lost eleven European Championship qualifiers in a row though and only have one win in their last 41 games. 

The last time these two teams met was in 2017 when England recorded a comfortable 4-0 victory. England’s response to their disappointing quarter final exit in the World Cup has been positive, winning against Italy and Ukraine earlier this year. England are top of the group and are on an excellent run in qualifiers, with 22 wins from their last 26 matches. Many of Englands’ players have endured long, tough seasons and some of the bigger names might not be involved in this game, in particular those that played in the Champions League final last weekend for Manchester City. 

Ten of England’s last eleven European qualification matches have seen a minimum of three goals scored and we can expect another high scoring win here. Malta have only scored one goal against England, in a 2-1 friendly match in June 2000 whereas England have scored 14 goals in five matches against Malta.

Denmark vs Northern Ireland

Denmark manager Kasper Hjulmand just signed a new deal to keep him in his position until 2026, something most people will be very pleased about considering the strong performance in the last Euro’s when they reached the semifinals. The last World Cup was not such a positive experience though, as they exited at the group stage despite being picked by many to perform well. This home match gives them a very good chance to get their campaign back on track after a poor loss to Kazakhstan and they will be confident of getting the better of Northern Ireland, especially since Denmark only have one home defeat in European Qualification matches since 2007. 

This is arguably the toughest match that Northern Ireland will face in this group, so they will go into the match more in hope than expectation. In the last round they recorded a win against San Marino but lost to Finland and will know that they do face a battle to qualify for their first European tournament since 2016. Their recent form has not been great though as they only have two wins from their last nine matches and they have conceded eleven goals in their last four matches against teams in the top 20. 

The last meeting between these two was a win for Northern Ireland, back in 2007 and draws have also been commonplace, there have been four in the last ten meetings.

Saturday 17 June – Norway vs Scotland

This is a match that the home team needs to win following their poor start to their qualification campaign. Having only managed to secure one point from their first two matches, all three are vital in this encounter. It is 24 years since Norway have reached a major finals, a poor record for a country that has produced some quality players over the years. Their last appearance was at Euro 2000. Their Manchester City striker is their main man, and having won a treble in his first season, he will be hoping to transfer that form to the international stage and lead his team to three points. 

Scotland have an opportunity to go six points clear at the top of the table should they win this encounter, since Spain are involved in the Nations League. They have won their last two matches and scored five goals in the process as well as keeping clean sheets in both matches. One of those victories was an impressive 2-0 win over Spain, a result which has Scotland dreaming of qualification for the tournament. 

Two of the best players in the Premier League this season will lead the way for Norway, whilst  in the other camp, Manchester United’s Scott McTominay will be looking to build on the two goals he scored against both Spain and Cyprus back in March. The last meeting between these two was a friendly back in 2013, which Scotland won 1-0.

Portugal vs Bosnia

Portugal have made an excellent start to their qualification campaign for Euro 2024, winning their opening two matches with a combined aggregate score of 10-0. This positive start will face a tougher test as Bosnia are a step up when compared to the previous two teams that they faced, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. However, new coach Roberto Martinez will be pleased by what he has seen so far as Portugal attempt to get over their loss in the quarter finals of the World Cup to Morocco. A shortage of quality players has never been an issue for Portugal and this continues to be the case as they have a large number of both established stars and promising young players to choose from. 

Bosnia managed to get promoted to League A in the Nations League last time out, so they are certainly doing something right. Their opening two matches of this qualification campaign have seen them win comfortably against Iceland but they suffered a defeat in Slovakia. This defeat could be damaging as Slovakia are likely to be their nearest challenger to finish in second spot in this group, behind Portugal. Bosnia have failed to win in 12 of their last 13 international away matches but in that time they did at least manage very creditable draws against the likes of France and Italy. 

Three of the four previous meetings between these two went Portugal’s way including a big 6-2 win the last time these two teams met in 2011.