Group ‘C’ of the European Championship Qualifiers is proving to be a close affair with Germany, Northern Ireland and Netherlands running each other close. As such, this game between Netherlands (third, nine points) and Northern Ireland (second, 12 points) is promising to be a classic encounter.
Netherlands are coming off a 4-0 win over Estonia, making it back-to-back wins of the Euro qualifiers campaign. The Dutch have been prolific scorers in the campaign so far, with 14 goals in four matches to their name. Each of their four matches in the Euro qualifiers have produced over 3.5 total match goals. However, their form at home in the qualifiers has been a bit dicey. Netherlands have lost three of their last four Euro qualifiers played at home (W1, L3). These remain their only losses at home in the competition history.
Northern Ireland started their qualifying campaign with four wins – two each against Estonia and Belarus. They were always expected to win those, while games against the higher-ranked Germany and Netherlands were supposed to be tough. Proving that theory right, they fell to a 2-0 loss to Germany in their previous Euro qualifying game. Interestingly, they have remained stubborn away from home in the competition. Northern Ireland are unbeaten in four games (W3, D1) away from home in the Euro qualifying and have lost just once in their last seven European qualifiers on the road (W5, D1, L1).
One thing common with Netherlands in the European Qualifiers this campaign has been the total number of goals. The Dutch have been scoring goals for fun, and will be searching for a win to steer clear of qualification problems. Back the game to be a high-scorer.