Spain vs Slovakia Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

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Joel Amorim Sep 04, 2015 @ 12:55 am

Next Saturday, 5th of September 2015, the all-powerful Spain will go head-to-head with a surprising Slovakia at the Nuevo Carlos Tartiere in Oviedo for the 2016 UEFA European Championship Qualifying Round.

A narrow win at Belarus, an unimpressive home win with Costa Rica, a 2-0 defeat with a Dutch side on the verge of becoming obsolete, another narrow 1-0 win against the Ukraine and a 1-0 home defeat against the World Champions of Germany: this is Spain’s humble recent record that is nothing more than an extent of what they did during the Brazil’s World Cup last Summer.

Vicente Del Bosque’s resistance to change is probably costing Spain the desirable consistency they were supposed to have right now. The injection of fresh blood into La Roja is almost mandatory and from what we were able to witness from their U19 Team almost two months ago at the 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Greece, they have what is needed to perform the almost compulsory renewal.

While such “upgrade” does not takes place, Spain need to win their upcoming match against Slovakia if they want to regain control of Group C. The Slovaks overcame Spain when both sides met at Zilina last October and are 100% victorious at the top of their group, something that forces Spain to defeat them at Oviedo next Saturday in order not only to obtain the lead of their group but also to keep their closest contenders, Ukraine, at bay.

Spain have not been defeated at home, in European qualifiers, since 2003, when they lost to Greece, and they will certainly try to extend such impressive record when they host the Slovaks next weekend.

As for Slovakia, alongside with Wales and Iceland, they are probably the most pleasant surprise of the European qualifiers so far. The Slovaks put an abrupt end to Spain’s glorious 36-game unbeaten run in qualifiers last October and they are travelling to Asturias with the ambition of causing La Roja another major upset.

Miroslav Stoch was the hero of day on that October night in Zilina by scoring his side’s winning goal on the dying moments of the match.

For their travel to Carlos Tartiere, the Slovak manager, Jan Kozak, will not be able to rely on the contribution of two important players as Martin Škrtel and Juraj Kucka will miss the match due to suspension.

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