Northern Ireland v Russia Betting: Comfortable but narrow win for visitors

 

Jaymes Monte looks at Northern Ireland's must-win game against Russia this Friday...

 

Northern Ireland may still harbour faint aspirations of attaining a top-two finish in Group F, but anything other than victory against a Russia side that they have not beaten in five previous clashes (including as Soviet Union) would extinguish those lingering flames of hope.

 

Michael O'Neill's tenure as the national team manager is a litter of disappointments interspersed with a single beacon of encouragement - a 1-1 draw in Portugal in October 2012. Dropped points at home to Luxembourg and Azerbaijan mean that the hard-fought qualification campaigns for World Cup 2010 and Euro 2008 are now distant memories.

 

Russia, meanwhile, have won all four of their World Cup qualifiers to date without conceding a goal, while they have lost just one of their last 24 internationals in all competitions, winning 13 and drawing 14. Odds of 1.55 on an away victory are more than fair and well worth taking advantage of for those undeterred by short prices.

 

The difficulty of O'Neill's task is amplified by the absence of Kyle Lafferty and Chris Baird due to suspension and Dean Shiels due to injury. Martin Paterson does, however, return to the squad following a self-imposed break from international football whilst he regained full fitness following a series of injuries. Aberdeen striker Josh Magennis has also been called into the squad to replace the injured Jamie Ward.

 

Fyodor Smolov, Oleg Ivanov and Anton Shunin were all trimmed from Fabio Capello's 27-man provisional squad, while there was a late call-up for Lokomotiv's Dmitry Tarasov. Andrei Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Pavel Pogrebnyak all continue to be left out of the fold.

 

Despite the expectation of a comfortable win for Russia, we shouldn't necessarily anticipate a goal-glut at Windsor Park. Norn Iron have managed to score a total of just three goals in their last five games, a run of fixtures that includes matches against Luxembourg, Azerbaijan and Malta, while they haven't scored more than once in a competitive home game since meeting Faroe Islands here back in August 2011.

 

The Russians also don't tend to score many, while conceding even fewer. As mentioned above they have yet to concede a goal in four World Cup qualifying games under the stewardship of Capello, while they have only scored more than twice in a game once in their last seven matches including international friendlies. Under 2.5 goals is suitably short at odds of 1.66, while there is also scope to take a chance on the 3.0 about Under 1.5.

 

And the man we should be looking to give Russia all three points here is Roman Shirokov, who can be backed at odds of 6.6 to break the deadlock and 3.4 to net anytime. The Zenit St Petersburg midfielder has scored in Russia's last three internationals and in four of their last six, including a goal against Northern Ireland last September.

 

That meeting six months ago, Capello's first competitive game in charge, ended 2-0 to the Russians. Viktor Fayzulin netting the other goal of the game. A repeat scoreline is currently trading at around 6.4, and looks a good saver bet if you do decide to go for the more risky approach of backing Under 1.5 goals.

 

Recommended Bets:

Back Under 1.5 goals @ 3.0

Back 0-2 Correct Score @ 6.4

 

Bet HERE

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