UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifying Group D leaders Ireland will be looking to extend their lead at the top of the table when they host Switzerland at Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Thursday. The two national teams have last met in a friendly match in 2016, which was won 1-0 by Ireland. Overall, four of the last six direct matches in all competitions ended with draws, two were won by Switzerland and just one by Ireland.
Ireland had a perfect start to their UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying campaign, they are undefeated after four matches and have won three of them. However, two of their victories were over group minnows Gibraltar and the other one over Georgia, while the most difficult of their matches was the 1-1 draw in Denmark in June. Sean Maguire, Matt Doherty and Keiren Westwood have all withdrawn from the squad because of injuries, while James McCarthy was sent back to his club after having just recovered from a lengthy injury lay-off.
Switzerland have played just two matches in this group so far, both in March, and they collected four points from them. They started with a 2-0 victory in Georgia, who have lost three of their four matches so far, and then produced a spectacular 3-3 draw at home against Denmark. In June they played in the UEFA Nations League final tournament, but lost 3-1 to Portugal in the semi-finals and then were defeated on penalties by England in the match for third place. Liverpool winger Xherdan Shaqiri asked to be left out of the squad for this match in order to focus on his career at the club.
Probable line-ups:
Ireland: Randolph - Coleman, Duffy, Keogh, Stevens - Christie, Hendricks, Whelan, Hourihane, McClean - Robinson
Switzerland: Sommer - Mbabu, Schar, Elvedi, Rodriguez - Freuler, Zakaria, Xhaka - Seferovic, Ajeti, Embolo
My prediction:
We will most likely witness a very tight match between these two sides, I think a 1-1 draw is the most probable outcome.
Here are the odds for this match at NetBet:
Ireland win - 3.75
Draw - 3.15
Switzerland win - 2.15
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