Northern Ireland To Gain Important Result Against Serbia

This fixture could be huge for Northern Ireland as they continue their admiral pursuit of qualification for Euro 2012, they face Serbia who sit one point below them in Group C and Northern Ireland could close the current two point gap between them and second placed Slovenia, who crucially have played one more match than Northern Ireland at the moment. Qualification for Euro 2012 would represent an amazing achievement for Northern Ireland and their manager Nigel Worthington and a win in this match would make it almost a huge disappointment if they then went on to fail to qualify for the European Championships Finals next summer.

 

Northern Ireland midfielder Grant MCcann is confident of victory on Friday, he recently told the Belfast Telegraph “They shouldn’t have beaten us out there, we didn’t deserve to lose. The first-half was the best we’ve played for a long time. In the second-half they changed things a bit and scored early on, but at Windsor Park we’ve got to fancy our chances against them. We do owe Serbia one and hopefully we can get the three points back off them."

 

It was an admirable performance five months to only lose 2-1 in Belgrade against Serbia and the atmosphere will be very different back in Northern Ireland for this match, for a start the players won't be playing in front of an empty stadium. Northern Ireland are traditionally strong at Windsor Park and haven't even conceded a goal in their three qualifiers there in this group, that included a clean sheet against Italy so it is difficult to see a struggling Serbia getting on the scoresheet. 

 

The loss of Nemanja Vidic in defence will make life easier for the Northern Ireland attack and it is perhaps surprising, and a little insulting, that Serbia have been made favourite for this game. At the available odds the best bet may be Northern Ireland +1 in the asian handicap as that reduces the risk in backing Northern Ireland and pays well too.