Russia v Slovenia Betting Preview – World Cup Qualifying Play-Off

RUSSIA v SLOVENIA

Russia, who battled hard with Germany in their Qualifying Group, will really fancy their chances against little Slovenia. But they will be fair warned that the Slovenia’s have the technical ability to cause some problems. The Russians, managed by Guus Hiddink, lost twice to Germany during qualifying, whereas Slovenia finished runners up to neighbours Slovakia. Hiddink is a tactically sound manager, as he has proven time and time again across the world, most recently in the UK, where he took temporary charge of Premier League side Chelsea. He has taken South Korea and Australia to World Cups, and his Russia side were semi finalists last year at Euro 2008. Slovenia have been at one World Cup and one Euro Championships, but they are a good tight unit, with no particular stand out players, just a very good team with spirit.

The Slovenians will be defensively sound, especially away from home, and it will down to the Russians to try and play positive football to break them down. In their ten qualifying matches, Slovenia conceded just four, and that equated to the best defensive record out of all European qualifying teams. Granted they weren’t in a particularly strong group, but they did beat group winners Slovakia twice, and should not be overwhelmed by the challenge. Followers of the English Premier League, will notice three familiar names in Russian shirts, that of Arsenal’s Andrei Arshavin, Chelsea’s Yuri Zhirkov and Tottenham’s Pavlyuchenko.

Russia to win: 4/11 at BetFred
Draw: 15/4 at Bet365
Slovenia to win: 10/1 at Coral

Current Form of Last 10 Games (including Friendlies):
Russia W6, D1, L3
Slovenia W4, D1, L5

Russia have a 63.6 win percentage at home. Slovenia have a 24.0 win percentage away.

Prediction: Slovenia +1.25 Asian Handicap – Evens at Bet365

 This game can be followed with a live stream on Bet365 for account holders. There is still time to take advantage of this, just open an account and you are free to watch and enjoy, but why not take advatnage of their free matched first deposit for new accounts while at it!