Russia-Slovakia
Football : International : EURO 2012 Qualifiers, Group B
Tuesday, 07th September 2010. Kickoff 17:00 CET

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So odd to see national teams involved in qualifying games on Tuesday. Just as odd as to see them battle on Fridays. Well, both teams had enough time to rest and prepare for the first serious encounter on the long road to Poland/Ukraine.

We easily guessed the correct 2-0 scoreline in Russia's match vs. Andorra. Advocaat's men hardly sweated while cruising in low gear around the small pitch in Andorra-La-Vella. Biggest event of the match was visiting fans "performance".

Prior to the second goal Russian supporters began chanting offensive things from the stands and throwing fruits at players. These prehistoric scenes could've made some sense if they were aiming at Andorrans.

Of course these actions had quite a resonance in Russian media and in Advocaat's camp. Relationship between national team players and fans were never smooth, but now it all reminds cold war status.

Russians have no drop-outs from the squad which conquered Andorra. On the contrary, left wing-back Yury Zhirkov makes a return from suspension and will challange Everton's Bilyaletdinov for the starting spot.

Slovakia raised the bar of fans' expectations when they qualified for the World Cup in South Africa. The whole country is now waiting for Weiss and Co. to keep the high standard as it is. P

erhaps unusually high pressure and expectations paralyzed Slovakians during the opener vs. Macedonia. Eventually hosts grabbed the win thanks to a stoppage time goal from Filip Holosko.Slovaks will have to improve if they want to get anything from Tuesday's fixture in Cherkizovo,Moscow.

However, Vladimír Weiss' side looked far from comfortable against Macedonia at home as they just about defeated them 1-0. A 90th minute goal from Filip Holosko eventually proved to be the difference between the two sides on Friday.

Betting advice

I foresee a very cagey match in Moscow. Slovakians left a depressing impression at the World Cup, in my personal opinion, under Weiss. One thing they can do best is defend.

With the likes of Stoch, Weiss Jr. and Hamsik in midfield they should really be doing much better.

Anyway if we combine this argument and the importance of tonight's match for both sides - we should easily sense an under 2.50 goal line.

The Statistics :

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take UNDER 2.5 GOALS