Iraq vs Syria prediction for Thursday’s Asian World Cup qualification showdown at Thani bin Jassim Stadium in Doha. Fifth-placed Iraq playing in a neutral location host bottom of the group A Syria in round five of the World Cup qualification for Qatar 2022. You can follow our free preview prediction and betting tips on this page.
Three draws and one defeat left Iraq with three points from four matches in the final phase of the Asian WCQ. Thus the one-time qualifiers to the World Cup in Mexico 86 are looking for their first win of this stage. Nonetheless, given they get all three points against Syria, Iraq might climb all the way to third place. Hence the importance of this game.
Notably, Iraq have not won in five matches. Moreover, coach Dick Advocaat’s team scored just two goals in the process. Both of those goals came in their last match against UAE when they drew 2-2. In fact, Iraq were seconds away from registering their first win but they conceded in the dying seconds as the Emirates equalized in the 94th minute. Thus, this is a must-win game for Iraq if they want to battle for a qualification berth.
Just one point from four games courtesy of a draw with the UAE put Syria in the last position of Group A. As a result, this match might be the last chance for Syria to finish top three. Syria never qualified for the World Cup finals and played in the AFC cup five times without succeeding to pass to the second round.
In their last match, Syria lost to Lebanon 3-2. Markedly coach Nizar Mahrous’s team led at the start of the game but let in three goals before closing the gap in the final minutes. As for Syria’s away record, they lost their last three matches scoring two goals and conceding six. Consequently, coach Mahrous has to play all his cards and play for all three points.
With both Iraq and Syria having similar forms and levels, naturally, the chances for a win is quite equal. To point out, the market stats show a 40% chance for an Iraq win and 30% for a Syria win.
According to the bookies, a low-scoring game is expected with under 2.5 goals having odds of 1.47 at Vbet. That total happened in Iraq’s three of the last five games. However, more remarkably under 2.5 goals were scored in the last eight h2h matches.
To conclude, we think the importance of the game might paralyze both offenses. Surely, the reason for that will be that both coaches want to avoid a defeat at all costs. Since the odds are low for total goals scored, we will combine it with a double chance outcome yo get better value.
Draw or Iraq win and under 3.5 goals 1.50 at Vbet
Iraq win or Syria win and over 1.5 goals 2.03 at Vbet