Kosovo and Northern Ireland will return to the fold this Wednesday when they square off at Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Prishtina in their third round in the UEFA Nations League. Kickoffs at 21:45 EAT.
Kosovo will turn their attention into the Nations League as not be going Qatar after they finished at the bottom of a World Cup qualification group that featured Spain, Sweden, Greece and Georgia. Since they were promoted to the C League they have struggled, winning only two of their eight matches in the third tier. The defeat by Greece was their first loss in five matches after two wins and two draws.
The hosts will want to bounce back from 0-1 Nations League defeat to Greece in their last game. In that match, Kosovo managed 44% possession and nine shots with two of them on target. Greece got 10 shots with three of them on target and a goal by Anastasios Bakasetas 36’.
Ranked over 50 places ahead of the hosts in the FIFA World Rankings, the visitors enter this fixture as underdogs at the time of writing. Their record in the this competition has been very poor to say the least as they are still looking for their first win in 12 matches with nine losses and three draws. Northern Ireland has had a decent recent record across all competitions losing just twice in their last six matches.
Northern Ireland gets into this fixture off the back off 0-0 Nations League draw with Cyprus in their last outing. In that match, Ireland had 59% possession and 13 shots with two of them on target. Cyprus got 10 shots with two of them.
Kosovo vs. Northern Ireland head to head
Wednesday’s meeting will be the first competitive head to head meeting between these two teams.
Home
- Kosovo 0-1 Greece
- Cyprus 0-2 Kosovo
- Switzerland 1-1 Kosovo
- Kosovo 5-0 Burkina Faso
- Greece 1-1 Kosovo
Away
- Cyprus 0-0 Northern Ireland
- Northern Ireland 0-1 Greece
- Northern Ireland 0-1 Hungary
- Luxembourg 1-3 Northern Ireland
- Northern Ireland 0-0 Italy
Kosovo team news
Fidan Aliti and Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Murić are both suspended after receiving their marching orders against Greece last time out.
Northern Ireland team news
Manager Ian Baraclough’s side heads into this meeting with a clean bill of health.
Prediction and odds
A closely-fought low-scoring contest is set to be on the cards on Thursday, and while the two nations will both fancy their chances of claiming all three points, we can see the spoils being shared here.
- Draw
- Goals under 2.5
- Double Chance 1 or 2
