After failing to qualify for the EURO 2016 finishing 4th in their qualifying group stage, Serbia are leading the World Cup 2018 qualifiers group D winning 11 points from five matches. They are in great shape being unbeaten in this campaign scoring 12 goals during the process. But this match is a must win for Serbia as they have Republic of Ireland (equal in the number of points) breathing down their necks. 3rd placed Wales are already four points behind with a very poor performance showed till now. Wales have never beaten Serbia in an international game, losing four of their last five mutual encounters.
Wales will be without the services of the suspended star Gareth Bale, who scored both of their goals against Serbia in their last three head-to-heads. Half of their eight goals in this campaign have been scored by Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale and without him, it will be really tough for them to go back home with a positive result. Without him, they should count on Aaron Ramsey to bring them something from this match. Away from home Wales have two back-to-back draws (0-0 vs. Ireland and 2-2 vs. Austria).
Serbia are unbeaten at home since October 2015. On the other side, Wales have not won an away qualifier match since September 2015. Serbia will put their best effort to win the match, extend their unbeaten record and put a bigger gap between them and their followers. Four teams are fighting for the top two spots but the only 1st place will qualify directly with the 2nd place playing the playoffs. This is a must win for Wales if they are still thinking of finishing at least 2nd. Wales have climb up to 13th place in the World rankings but that’s just because they reached the EURO 2016 semifinals.
Serbia are priced at 1.73 with the green listed bookmaker Bet365 and Wales are priced at 5.5 with Unibet. Serbia are the better side overall and they should dominate this match in front of their home crowd. Wales without Gareth Bale will have big problems in finding the back of the net but because this match is a must win for them they might push for the win. Wales lost 6-1 in their previous trip in Serbia, back in 2012 but that’s long time ago and that result should not affect this game because thing have changed since that time. Both teams are struggling in their defense so we should easily see both teams scoring. Wales have conceded in four of their last five games on the road. Serbia have conceded in 12 of their last 13 home encounters.
Best pick for the match:
Both teams to score at 2.25 with Betfair
Calculators
