5 Tips for Saturday’s International Action - 4/6/22

Hungary and England meet in a Nations League game this Saturday at the Puskas Arena in Budapest. The game was originally supposed to be played behind closed doors but now will have up to 30,000 spectators.

The last meeting between the two was a 1 - 1 draw in a World Cup Qualifier at Wembley, a point rescued for England by a John Stones header. However, most clashes between England and Hungary do tend to have a high number of goals. In fact, in the 24 matches between the two, 15 games have had three or more goals scored - the biggest score-line in this fixture being an 8 - 2 win for England back in 1909. This, therefore, suggests that a big scoreline in Budapest is highly likely.

England are also in particularly good form, with four wins and a single draw in their last five games - that draw coming against Hungary back in October. Excluding the 2 - 1 win over Switzerland, Gareth Southgate’s men have had their shooting boots on with five goals against Albania, ten goals against San Marino and three against Ivory Coast. With this considered, there’s a high likelihood of an England win and a flurry of goals in Budapest.

Though this clash between Italy and Germany in Bologna this Saturday is a Nations League fixture, Germany may be using this high-profile opposition to prepare for the World Cup in December. The same cannot be said of European Champions Italy, as they fell to defeat at the hands of North Macedonia in the Qualifiers, making it back-to-back World Cups without the Azzurri.

Italy also slumped to a disappointing 3 - 0 defeat in the Finalissima against Argentina, meaning that Roberto Mancini’s men have only one win in their last five games, a 3 - 2 win over Turkey.

Italy have two losses in the last five, against Argentina and North Macedonia and two draws against Switzerland and Northern Ireland. Germany on the other hand, have four wins and a draw in their last five games, that draw coming against a strong Netherlands team.

This meeting is likely to have under 2.5 goals as in the last two matches both ended in a draw, 1- 1 and 0 - 0 respectively.

The Republic of Ireland are looking to get their Nations League campaign started with a win over Armenia.

With a close group that includes Scotland and Ukraine, a win in Yerevan could move Ireland even closer to possible promotion to the top league of the Nations League. A win would also be crucial for Armenia who face an uphill battle to stay in League B.

Ireland have three wins in their last five games and two draws. These wins include two separate 3 - 0 wins over Azerbaijan and Luxembourg and a 1 - 0 win over Lithuania. However, the two draws are decidedly more impressive as Ireland drew 2 - 2 with the second-ranked team in the world Belgium and a 1 - 1 draw with a star-studded Portugal.

Armenia have only one win in their last five games, a 1 - 0 win over Montenegro. But in those four losses, Armenia conceded 19 goals, with one being 9-0 last time out against Norway. This contrast in form suggests that this clash should result in a win for the Republic of Ireland.

Finland host Bosnia-Herzegovina in Helsinki this Saturday, with both sides looking to get a strong start to their Nations League campaign in a League B group that is very open.

The two teams both missed out on qualification for the 2022 World Cup and will therefore be focusing all of their energy on the Nations League and possible promotion.

Finland have two wins, a draw and two losses in their last five games. The two wins, one a 2 - 0 against Kazakhstan and the other interestingly came against Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Finland won 3 - 1 away.

Bosnia-Herzegovina have only one win in their last five games, a marginal 1 - 0 win over Luxembourg. The three successive losses before that win includes a 1 - 0 defeat to Georgia, a 2 - 0 loss to Ukraine and a 3 - 1 loss to Finland.

Edin Dzeko is Bosnia-Herzegovina's top all-time top scorer with 61 goals in 120 appearances. This is 33 more than second-ranked scorer, Vedad Ibisevic. The 36-year-old is still playing and scoring at the highest level in Italy, where he scored 13 goals in 36 appearances for Inter Milan this season.

This form and his position as all-time top scorer makes it likely for Dzeko to find the back of the net this weekend.

Turkey welcomes the Faroe Islands to Istanbul in their first game in the C League of the Nations League this Saturday. Both are new to the league, Turkey having played in B League previously, but were relegated, and the Faroe Islands were promoted from D League during their 2020/21 campaign.

Turkey have three wins and two losses in their last five games, close 2 - 1 wins over Latvia and Montenegro and a 6 - 0 thrashing of Gibraltar. The two losses came against two teams ranked inside the top ten in the world by Fifa, Italy and Portugal, where Turkey lost 3 - 2 and 3 - 1 respectively.

The Faroe Islands have a single win and one draw in their last five games, a 1 - 0 win over Liechtenstein and a 0 - 0 draw with Gibraltar. The other three games were consecutive losses, a 3 - 2 loss to Israel, a 3 - 1 defeat to Denmark and a 1 - 0 loss to Scotland.

Turkey and the Faroe Islands have only met once before, in an International Friendly back in 1991. That affair ended in a 1 - 1 draw, but this meeting is more likely to result in a big Turkey win. Turkey are ranked 81 places higher than the Faroe Islands and have far superior form heading into the tie.