The international breaks have set in once again and on this post we would be looking some top fixtures across Europe. Some teams are engaged in international friendlies while others battle it out in the Uefa nations league.
Read on for match previews and predictions.
International friendly
Germany – Russia
Germany head into today’s clash on the back of two defeats in October. Two losses to France and Holland have seen them take bottom position in the group. Here they face Russia in a friendly game in preparation for their all important clash against the Netherlands on Monday. Despite an array of incredibly talented players, the Germans are really struggling to get results. If they fail to turn things around in November’s matches, then we could see big changes ahead of the qualifiers starting in March.
Russia on the other hand have been impressive since their exploits at the world cup. They’re already comfortably sited at the top of their group, and they could win the group even with a loss on Saturday evening. They look set for promotion to the top tier, and they could well be leaving the Germans behind.
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Both teams to score
Uefa Nations league
Belgium – Iceland
Iceland have been the underdogs in League A. They were thrashed by Switzerland on match-day one, and despite the 6-0 score-line did flatter the Swiss slightly, the facts show that they fully deserved to come off second best. They were then of course outclassed from start to finish by Belgium in by he reverse fixture. Their defensive flaws was once again a major issue last time out at home against Switzerland.
As was to be expected, Belgium have been in impressive form since the start of this competition. Roberto Martínez’s men have imposed themselves offensively and in doing so they’ve allowed their opponents few chances to build up on Against Thursday’s opponents on match-day one, the Red Devils were virtually untouchable. They allowed Iceland to muster just a few chances goals, while they delivered a threatening performance at the other end, scoring three goals in the process. Having done that on their travels, it’s very easy to say the Belgians are running wild now are better still in their own backyard.
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1/1 (halftime/fulltime)
Netherlands – France
Having failed to qualify for the just concluded world cup in Russia, the Netherlands are on a journey of self discovery. Oranje have done reasonably well since they were left out . They have picked up a couple of poor results, the defeat in Paris being one of those. They’ve also collected some wins against worthy oppositions. Having recently beaten 2014 world champions Germany by three goals to nil. This Dutch ought to fancy their chances ahead of this game.
The world champions have picked up where they left off in Russia. In this competition Didier Deschamps’ men aren’t exactly been impressing viewers with fantastic performances. Somehow all they’ve done is develop a habit of always getting the job done. They did what was needed to outscore Thursday’s opponents in Paris, while much of the same can be said about their performance against Germany last time out, though the didn’t look to overwhelm any of those opponents.
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Both teams to score
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