Ireland (34) v. France (9)
Portugal (10) v. Bosnia (42)
Greece (16) v. Ukraine (22)
Russia (12) v. Slovenia (49)
Just a recap as to how the playoffs work: for each pair, each team hosts one of the two games; whoever scores more goals in the two games win; if they score the same number of goals, the team that scored more in their away game wins.
All of these should be very interesting competitions. Perhaps the most interesting will be the Portugal Bosnia match-up; this is Bosnia's first time in the playoffs, and Portugal have been far from at their best recently. Cristiano Ronaldo is injured and can't play either game. Figo has retired, Deco's form has been inconsistent latently, and Manchester United's Nani appears to have given up football to further his career as a clown. In short, it is far from clear that Portugal are capable of scoring against a fairly decent team without Ronaldo. On the other hand, Bosnia are just about the best they have been in years.
I will be making predictions for each game as it comes close to kickoff. Seeing as it is almost 8, I begin with Russia v. Slovenia
This should be a close one, believe it or not. Admittedly Russia is ranked significantly higher, but Slovenia are moving up and Russia didn't look their best during the first stage of qualification, despite being in a generally easier group than Slovenia. Slovenia only conceded 4 goals in qualifying (though Russia also only conceded 6). And the Slovene team showed they were good enough on the road, especially when it counted as seen by their draw away to Poland to open the qualifying process and their win in Slovakia which delayed Slovakia's qualification to the WC and helped ensure Slovenia a spot in the playoffs. Admittedly Russia are stronger than Slovakia, but if they're not at their best...
That's not to say Russia don't have an advantage in this first game: it is at home and they are a better team (though how much better is not clear). But Slovenia also have some advantages: they are a bit of an unknown in terms of strengths: they know more about Russia than Russia know about them. Also, from the coverage of interviews of Russian players, they seem certainly a bit overconfident, which is always a problem, especially against Slovenia who are good at scoring on quick counterattacks.
Final prediction: it will be a very close match. Control of the game could go back and forth. Don't expect either side to win it by more than 1 goal, if anyone wins at all...
I will be making predictions for each game as it comes close to kickoff. Seeing as it is almost 8, I begin with Russia v. Slovenia
This should be a close one, believe it or not. Admittedly Russia is ranked significantly higher, but Slovenia are moving up and Russia didn't look their best during the first stage of qualification, despite being in a generally easier group than Slovenia. Slovenia only conceded 4 goals in qualifying (though Russia also only conceded 6). And the Slovene team showed they were good enough on the road, especially when it counted as seen by their draw away to Poland to open the qualifying process and their win in Slovakia which delayed Slovakia's qualification to the WC and helped ensure Slovenia a spot in the playoffs. Admittedly Russia are stronger than Slovakia, but if they're not at their best...
That's not to say Russia don't have an advantage in this first game: it is at home and they are a better team (though how much better is not clear). But Slovenia also have some advantages: they are a bit of an unknown in terms of strengths: they know more about Russia than Russia know about them. Also, from the coverage of interviews of Russian players, they seem certainly a bit overconfident, which is always a problem, especially against Slovenia who are good at scoring on quick counterattacks.
Final prediction: it will be a very close match. Control of the game could go back and forth. Don't expect either side to win it by more than 1 goal, if anyone wins at all...
