5 Tips for Thursday's Nations League Action - 22/9/22

With the World Cup fast approaching and key players out injured and being without a win in four games, Didier Deschamps will want a reaction from his France squad to show they mean business ahead of defending their trophy, which involved an attack of Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappe.

Giroud has only been included in the squad once since Euro 2020, and in those two appearances, he netted in both appearances and despite his age, he is not slowing down, already netting four times this season for AC Milan, including one in each of his past three appearances.

Every time Mbappe enters the pitch, you expect him to find a goal, scoring ten goals for PSG this season in nine appearances, and against an Austrian side who’ve won once in their last six games, he will likely get his fair share of opportunities to score.

Louis Van Gaal has got his Netherlands team firing on all cylinders since taking over a year ago, taking charge of 13 games, winning nine times and drawing four times, scoring an average of 2.9 goals per game, which is impressive since it's his first managerial job since being sacked by Manchester United in 2016.

Poland and Netherlands have rarely played each other, only meeting 18 times, with Poland without a win in the fixture in the past 11 meetings, with their last fixture in June ending in a 2-2 draw, but the Netherlands dominated the game, limiting Poland to only five shots, whilst having 17 themselves missing three of their four big chances created.

Wales versus Belgium has become a very frequent occurrence over the past decade, with Wales becoming Belgium’s bogey team, with Belgium only winning once in their past seven meetings, whilst Wales have won two, including the famous 3-1 victory at Euro 2016.

In his last three appearances against Wales, Kevin De Bruyne has scored two goals, whilst also scoring two goals in his last four appearances for his national side and whilst Gareth Bale is struggling in the MLS, only starting twice since his move, he always plays his best for Wales and in his 423 minutes of football for his country, he has scored six times, a goal every 70 minutes.

Croatia and Denmark are two dark horses ahead of the winter World Cup in Qatar, with both teams having recent tournament runs showing off their quality, and surprisingly have only played each other seven times, with only three games involving a team scoring more than one goal.

Croatia have been involved in a lot of low-scoring game lately, wherein only two of their last seven games seeing a team scoring more than once, even keeping Denmark, who in their last 15 games have scored 2+ goals 11 times, to no goals, making this tie likely to be a very close event.

Turkey have been completely flawless in their Nations League group so far, playing four games, winning four games, scoring 14 goals whilst conceding no goals, creating an average of 4.75 big chances per game, including beating Luxembourg 2-0.

Turkey have missed nine of their 19 big chances created in their four Nations League games, including six of their past eight created, showing that if they take their chances that they have created recently, they could rack up a big scoreline, something they have been doing without even scoring their big chances.