For the last time in this calendar year, the official championship run in the European top leagues will be interrupted by a break for the internationals these days. In all EURO 2020 qualifying groups, decisions will be made by next Tuesday on which two national teams will secure the direct ticket to the finals in several cities across our continent.
In group B, meanwhile, only one right to start is vacant. With six wins and one draw from the previous seven matches, the Ukrainians are no longer able to beat first place, while Portugal and Serbia are currently fighting for second place. The better starting position has the reigning defending champion, who is a counter in front of the East Europeans and also has two feasible tasks against Lithuania and Luxembourg in front of the chest.
The “white eagles” have nevertheless set themselves the goal to do their own homework and thus possibly to benefit from an unexpected slip-up of the Portuguese. As part of the penultimate game day, it gets to do Serbia with Luxembourg. According to the odds of bookmakers, the question of the favorite does not arise. Anything but a sovereign success of the Tumbakovic team would be a real surprise.
But beware: The guests from the Grand Duchy play so far a very proper qualification for their circumstances, in which they were already allowed to cheer four counters. Because of high defeats so far completely, we present before the match Serbia vs. Luxembourg’s prediction that a tip on a runner-up favorite again is not blessed with sufficient value. Instead, it might be better to take a closer look at an alternative betting market.
Serbia:
The Serbian hope for the remaining two games in the European Championship qualification is called the Nations League. Although the world ranking 33rd In Group B, currently only one point behind Portugal in third place and thus still had all the options on the way to the top two, one seems to have reconciled themselves in the Balkan Peninsula with the participation in the playoffs.
In all likelihood, the detour through the Final Four C-League tournament must be gone, as long as the nation still wants to qualify for the European Championship finals in 2020 with the double-headed eagle in the crest. The reason for this is obvious, because hardly anyone really believes that the direct competitor from Portugal will let feathers in its two outstanding matches against Lithuania and Luxembourg.
To make matters worse, the team of coach Ljubisa Tumbakovic, who has been swinging the scepter since July 2019, has to play in the last matchday in Ukraine. Although the Shevchenko-Elf is already safe at the EURO, yet the yellow-blue at the end of the qualification certainly will not want to serve voluntarily as a point supplier.
Should the Serbs finish Group B in third place, as expected, in March they would take part in the final tournament of the four best and at the same time non-qualified teams of the third highest Nations League division. In two semi-finals and one final then another participant would be determined for the pan-European finals. A self-runner, however, would not be this detour, because, inter alia, with Scotland or probably Norway would wait dangerous opponents.
However, before the Southeast Europeans surrender to their fate, they will certainly do their utmost to overtake the Portuguese. This requires two victories in each case. Before the match between Serbia and Luxembourg seems a tip on the home side virtually no alternative, especially since the “Orlovi” presented after interim form weakness last again stronger.
Filip Kostic, Dusan Tadic and Co. all won the last three internationals. Really glittering with fame the Serbs against Lithuania (2: 1), Paraguay (1: 0) and Luxembourg (3: 1) but not. Among other things, in Serbia we would definitely refrain from a forecast for a victory with three or more goals difference against Luxembourg.
However, we could even imagine that the Tumbakovic protégés, who are qualitatively more predictable, will need a certain start-up time to crack the underdog’s defensive bulwark. Already in October against Lithuania (0-0 at halftime) and in the first leg in Luxembourg (1: 0 at half-time, 36th minute), the “white eagle” did in the first round surprisingly difficult and benefited only after the break from a tired expectant opponents. We would not rule out a similar gameplay on Thursday evening.
Luxembourg :
It should under no circumstances sound disrespectful or ironic if we attest to the Luxemburgers’ astonishingly successful qualification, even though the national team from the Grand Duchy was once again far from reaching a final round of a major event for the first time in the history of the association.
Four points from six games completed so far are at first glance anything but outstanding, but you have the yield and performance of the world ranking 96. in relation to the results of recent years and the actual performance. It becomes clear that the “red lions” can definitely be satisfied with their achievements.
Not only the point wins against the Lithuanians (1: 1, 2: 1), which are likely to leave behind in the final bill, made for joy in the small European country with a good 600,000 inhabitants, but also the promising performances against the favorites.
In the four duels against Ukraine, Portugal or Serbia, the Luxemburgs have never conceded more than three goals and lost only the away game against the reigning European champions with more than two goals difference. In addition, the Holtz-Elf even get two own hits.
Also noteworthy is the fact that the Underdog was behind in only three out of six qualifying matches at halftime and had never suffered more than one goal in the first 45 minutes. In view of these not uninteresting statistics, it should also make sense on Thursday evening between Serbia and Luxembourg sense to keep the quotas for a “raging” second half in the eye.
In our opinion, the passionately fighting “red lion” is quite confident that they will again be very good in the first 45 minutes and only allow a little with a defensive approach. Only with continuous playing time will there be gaps, which the Serbs will then probably use. Betting on a thrilling, close first half is definitely worth considering.
