Austria v Malta. Tancredi Palmeri’s prediction

It’s very hard to find any decent odds on a game like this. Naturally a side such as Austria are huge favourites against minnows like Malta. It does have to be said that Malta have improved tactically since the Italian Pietro Ghedin, former Italy assistant manager, took the job.

Obviously there is no contest between the two, Austria are a country who’ve qualified for EURO 2016 in good style and currently thriving at present. On the other hand, simply put, Malta are neither of these things. They of course got nowhere near to EURO 2016 and are a side who struggle in most if not all the games they play. Away games seem to be particularly difficult for this side since they have not scored on their travels since 2012! All told they’ve conceded 17 goals in seven friendlies. This is an average of 2.42 per game. So although they are consistently losing, and rightly so, they are not being completely blown away.

Austria will of course be looking to build momentum ahead of the Euros but they won’t want to overdo things, if they can turn in a good performance and take the victory here without exerting themselves too much then they will surely be pleased. On this basis the bet to go for here is Austria to win and under 3.5 goals.