Wednesday Euro qualifiers

Ireland V Cyprus

Ireland have a very small chance of qualification mathematically but realistically they are playing for pride at this stage. There was such hope and expectation going into the qualifying process but any chances of progressing were dashed after match day 2 in which Ireland were walloped 5 – 2 in Nicosia at the hands of Cyprus. Since then the Irish attempt has been very poor and only for Richard Dunne playing some excellent stuff in defence things would have been much worse.
Home form has been Irelands only bright spot. Undefeated so far at home, they are coming off the back of a tough 0 – 0 draw with Germany last Saturday evening. There were little chances either way but one could say the Irish had the slightly better chances to break the deadlock as Robbie Keane was guilty of one very bad miss. After the game he Keane talked about the upcoming Cyprus game and said how low the moral was in the camp after the previous meeting between the two. He gave the impression that the team were very fired up for this one.

Cyprus on the other hand had a great 3 – 1 victory at home over Wales. However having watched the game I would say it was more a case of Wales being very poor on the day than the Cypriots playing great stuff. On opening day they were thumped 6 – 1 away to Slovakia but bounced back with a 5 – 2 win over the Irish. They are very similar to the Irish team in that they are reasonably capable of competing with the best at home but put them away from home and they struggle. This is reflected in the fact that despite scoring 3 goals in their away games, they have also conceded 10 in the same 4 games. The only away points came at lowly San Marino in a 1 – 0 win.

Team news
Ireland – John O Shea and Darren Potter are available for selection as is Paul Mcshane and Stephen Hunt who are back from suspension. Richard Dunne and Lee Carsley are out suspended and Shane Long is also out injured.

Cyprus – Have no injury worries that I could find out about.

Verdict
The Irish team are hell bent on revenge and despite not playing too impressive so far should have far too much for Cyprus at home. I considered the overs bet but Ireland are not the best at giving teams a good beating and odds of 1.5 – 1.6 don’t appeal. However I do think Ireland will win by at least two clear goals so the recommended bet is a punt on Ireland –1.5 goals, odds of 1.85 are generally available and it appeals much more to me that over 2.5 goals bet.


PICKS
Im confident that Ireland can beat the 1.5 goal handicap here and am going for a max 10 point stake on this one.

Ireland -1.5 goals (1.9 @ betdirect) 10 points