European championships contenders Belgium seek to make it 6 wins out of 6 as they travel to Scotland to face a Scottish side who are in a do or die scenario here.
Belgium have so far been flawless in yet another successful qualifying campaign winning all of their opening 5 games scoring goals for fun and only conceding one so far will look to take yet another big step towards qualifying!
Scotland are coming off a heart-breaking loss to Russia at home which caused them to fall 6 points off the top 2 rather than being tied and are anything other than a win here pretty much eliminates them from yet another what has so far been disappointing campaign where they already suffered 3 defeats from 5 games including a 3-0 loss to Kazakhstan.
Scotland have not just struggled away, their home form has been quite horrendous in itself having lost 5 of their last 8 total home games including facing defeats to top sides like Netherlands, Belgium themselves, Portugal and Russia. Scotland have failed to win all of those games as an underdog proving to not be a very good side when it comes to making upsets as of late.
Belgium have been a solid away team only defeat during the past year coming to the Switzerland on their travels. They’ve kept 4 clean sheets and won all of the other 4 away games that they’ve played ever since the World Cup including as mentioned beating Scotland away not so long ago.
The player to watch for the hosts is their captain Left Back Andrew Robertson. He’s a very dangerous player going forward as shown by his assist numbers for his club and has even netted a goal in this competition. Robertson is Scotland’s best player by far and will not only be key in stopping Belgium’s attacks but will be a very important player in setting up chances.
For Belgium, of course Romelu Lukaku is the man to watch, he’s the record goal scorer for Belgium with 48 international goals and has been in fine form for his country scoring 7 in 4 competitive apps since the World Cup and he’s in great form right now scoring 2 in 2 for Inter to start the season. He scored against Scotland in the previous 2 meetings.
Belgium have dominated Scotland overall in recent meetings beating them 5 consecutive times without conceding a goal. They won a friendly here 0-4 last year and then proceeded to beat them 3-0 in the reverse fixture of the Euro qualifiers.
Belgium are understandably big-time favourites to win this match at the odds of 1.43 despite not having their star man Eden Hazard it’s still a very deep team. Scotland to win is a long shot 8.25 with Draw offered at 4.90. The odds are based on Unibet.
Team News
Scotland: Kieran Tierney is still sidelined for the Scots alongside Matt Ritchie and Scott McKenna who picked up injuries playing for their clubs.
Belgium: Star man Eden Hazard is out as he’s still nursing his injury alongside his brother Thorgan Hazard, Axel Witsel and Vincent Kompany. Martinez rotated his squad against San Marino with the likes of Lukaku and Mertens being on the bench, but expect them to return into the starting line-up for this game.
Betting Stats (Win/Void/Loss, Over/Void/Under Formats)
Scotland have covered none of their Handicaps in the qualifiers so far (0-1-4).
Scotland have also covered none of their 1st half Handicaps in the qualifiers so far (0-2-3).
Scotland average 1.2 bookings per game in the qualifiers so far (6 bookings in 5 games).
Scotland have covered 60% of their total goal overs in the Qualifiers so far (3-1-1).
Scotland have covered 40% of their total 1st half goal overs in the Qualifiers so far (2-0-3).
Belgium have covered 40% of their Handicaps in the qualifiers so far (2-1-2).
Belgium have covered 60% of their 1st half Handicaps in the qualifiers so far (3-1-1).
Belgium average 0.4 bookings per game in the qualifiers so far (2 bookings in 5 games). Clean.
Belgium have covered 20% of their total goal overs in the qualifiers so far (1-1-3).
Belgium have covered 60% of their total 1st half goal overs in the qualifiers so far (3-0-2).
KICK OFF – 9th September 2019 – 7:45pm UK Time
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