Slovakia take on the visitors Bosnia & Herzegovina in the round 2 match of UEFA Euro 2024 qualification. The match will be played on Saturday, March 26th at Tehelné pole (Bratislava).
Slovakia last showed serious results at Euro 2016, when they defeated Russia. In the next continental tournament, they were lucky to start with a victory over Poland, who played with ten men after Krychowiak was sent off. However, this was not enough, as they suffered two defeats and failed to qualify for the playoffs. In the following qualifiers, the Slovakians were noticeably worse and were fighting not for leadership, but for third place with Slovenia - a poor motivation. Nothing changed in 2022, despite the arrival of a new coach, Calzone. Against such opponents in the Nations League, like Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, only 7 points were earned, which of course was not enough to win the group. A new cycle began on Thursday, with a home game against Luxembourg. It was not a successful start, as they only managed a goalless draw at home.
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Bosnia only played in the World Cup once, in 2014, but that was limited to the group stage. Before and after that, the Bosnians lost four playoffs in a row, including before Euro 2020. The last qualifier was a failure, as the team, which includes stars like Pjanic and Dzeko, finished only fourth, losing to France (as expected), Ukraine, and even Finland. However, the latter managed to take revenge last year in the Nations League. Under the then-coach, Ivaylo Petev, they earned 4 points against Finland, and after 5 rounds, had 11 points in total. So even a 1-4 loss to Romania at the end did not prevent them from taking first place in the group. In the new cycle, they had to start without their longtime leader, Pjanic. However, Dzeko, Kolasinac, Krunic, Demirovic, and Prevljak were still part of the team, and they had a new coach - Faruk Hadzibegic, who, however, held the position briefly at the end of the last century. Their new debut was a reception of Iceland in Zenica. Everything went practically perfectly as they won 3-0, with Krunic becoming the hero, scoring a double by the 40th minute.
So far, there have been three matches played between these teams: a friendly in 2010 and a couple in the qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup. The visitors have consistently won: Bosnia twice and Slovakia once. In this match between geographical neighbors, the Slovaks have a slight advantage as they are playing at home. However, in the first round, the Bosnian players performed much better, so we predict that the visitors will win this match, while also taking the "zero" handicap.
Prediction for the match: Bosnia & Herzegovina to win with 0.0 handicap.
