UEFA Nations League Predictions > Mar 24th - 29th

[StevieDay1983]

[StevieDay1983]

Kazakhstan vs Moldova

The UEFA Nations League relegation play-offs enter the second leg phase on Tuesday afternoon with Kazakhstan versus Moldova kicking off at 3pm BST from the Astana Arena in Nur-Sultan. The home side hold a 2-1 aggregate advantage after getting the win away in the first leg. Can they finish off the job they started to avoid relegation to League D for the 2022/23 edition of the Nations League?

Kazakhstan might well be notorious for being the target of laughs for Sascha Baron Cohen's Borat character but the nation will be delighted to have sealed back-to-back wins after the 2-1 win away to Moldova in the first leg with a goal from Serhiy Malyi and own goal by Veaceslav Posmac. This win came after a narrow 1-0 friendly victory over Tajikistan back in November, 2021. These two wins have been a welcome remedy for a team that before them hadn't even managed to score in 4 of their previous 5 games. Head coach Andrei Karpovich will be relieved to see his team take an aggregate lead after finishing bottom of League C Group 4 in a group that also contained Albania, Belarus, and Lithuania.

Moldova have it all to do here on the road. It had started so well in the first leg with Ion Nicolaescu giving the team a first half lead on the stroke of half-time but the Kazakhstan comeback took the hosts by surprise. Head coach Serghei Clescenco has now seen his team lose their last 10 matches. It's also been 18 matches away from home without a win for the team with their last away victory coming in a 1-0 win away to San Marino back on 15th November, 2018. The Moldovans only took a single point from a tough League C Group 3 that consisted of Slovenia, Greece, and Kosovo. They also failed to score in all 3 of their away games in that group.

It's looking hard to see how Moldova can turn their away form around to get a result here. If they had managed to hold on in the first leg and grind out a win then they would've stood half a chance but Kazakhstan have the advantage and the momentum. I think Moldova will do well to even score here in what will be a very tough test for them against a Kazakhstan team that have earned results against the likes of Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania over the past few years.

Kazakhstan to Win @ 2.30 with Unibet

Kazakhstan to Score First @ 1.87 with Boylesports

[StevieDay1983]

Cyprus vs Estonia

The second game from the second legs of the UEFA Nations League relegation play-offs is coming up at 5pm BST on Tuesday afternoon when Cyprus and Estonia go head-to-head at the AEK Arena - Georgios Karapatakis in Larnaca. The first leg ended in a 0-0 stalemate with both teams unable to break their opponent down. Will we see another bore draw or will this encounter be slightly more entertaining?

Cyprus had long been a team that were looking like punching above their weight and were on the brink of reaching the play-offs for the 2016 European Championship. Unfortunately, Nikos Kostenoglou's side struggled in the Nations League finishing bottom of League C Group 1 that also included Montenegro, Luxembourg, and Azerbaijan. It's now no win in their last 10 games for the Cypriots and they have failed to score in 8 of those matches. That superb 1-0 home win over Slovenia in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers back in March last year now seems so long ago. The team did draw their last game played at home when they held Malta to a 2-2 draw back in October last year.

Estonia are building up a reputation for being a tough team to break down. Wales almost had our 2022 World Cup play-off hopes ruined by them holding us to a 0-0 draw in Cardiff. Head coach Thomas Haberli has seen his team pick up some decent results asides from that draw with Wales including getting results against Belarus, Latvia, Finland, and Lithuania over the past 12 months. The team might be tough to break down but they are also finding goals hard to score with the team failing to hit the back of the opposition net in 5 of their last 7 matches played. It is also just 1 win from their last 8 matches so actual victories still haven't been easy to come by since their Baltic Cup campaign last summer. In League C Group 2 they finished bottom of a group that consisted of Armenia, North Macedonia, and Georgia.

I feel this is a tough one to call. I am slightly surprised that Estonia didn't manage to get a lead from the home leg and that could be their downfall. Cyprus have done well to keep the scores level heading into this second leg. I feel Estonia have the better team and have been in better form but their lack of clinical finishing in front of goal could see this game go all the way to penalties.

Draw @ 3.00 with Boylesports

Total Goals Scored Under 1.5 @ 2.38 with Betfair