Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Ireland Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

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Joel Amorim Nov 09, 2015 @ 01:42 am

Next Friday, 13th of November 2015, the Republic of Ireland will travel to Zenica to measure forces with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Stadion Bilino Polje for the first leg of the UEFA European Championship play-off stage.

After a disappointing start in their group stage campaign, Bosnia managed to bounce back and ended their qualifying round in great style, winning three of their last four matches. After overcoming Wales at home by 2-0, the Bosnians had to dig very deep to secure the three points from their travel to Cyprus, where they ended up winning the match by 3-2 with two goals from Deportivo La Coruña’s midfielder Haris Medunjanin and a second-half goal from Cesena’s forward Milan Djuric.

Mehmed Bazdarevic, who replaced Safet Susic at the helm of the Bosnian National Team last December has an Herculean task on his hands, especially if we have in mind what happened to the Bosnian team back in the 2010 World Cup qualifying play-offs, where they were eliminated by Portugal on aggregate.

Bosnia have not lost any of their last four competitive home matches and are certainly optimistic for the upcoming fixture against the Irish. Bazdarevic has announced a 28 players’ list for the clashes against Ireland, where he included, Everton’s defensive midfielder Muhamed Besic, who will, nevertheless, miss the first leg match due to suspension.

As for Ireland, the Irish performed a very good qualifying campaign but ended in the third place of their group after their 2-1 defeat against Poland on the last group stage match. It was a particularly complicated qualifying group with the current World Champions, Germany, and with some hard working opponents such as Poland and even Scotland. In a recent interview, Ireland’s boss, Martin O’Neill, highlighted how difficult their qualifying campaign was and remembered that his team will measure forces with a fairly good team in the play-off stage.

O’Neill remembered, nevertheless, that Ireland’s fate was on their own hands and the fact of playing the second leg match at home could be a big plus for them.

It will be the fourth time the Republic of Ireland will participate in the play-off stage and so far they only came up victorious in one occasion.

Bosnia

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWWLW

Ireland

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - LWWWD

Possible Line-ups

Bosnia (4-2-3-1) – Begovic - Mujdza - Spahic - Sunjic - Zukanovic - Pjanic - Medunjanin - Lulic - Visca - Hadzic - Dzeko

Ireland (4-4-2) - Randolph - Coleman - Wilson - Keogh - Brady - McCarthy - Whelan - McClean - Hendrick - Long - Keane

Injury List / Suspended Players

Bosnia - Besic (sus)

Ireland - John O’Shea (sus) - Walters (sus)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions