Cyprus and Kosovo will meet at the GSP Stadium this weekend as the two meet in League C Group 2 of the Nations League with both nations set to compete against Northern Ireland and Greece in this group.
It’s arguably the most compelling and competitive group across the Nations League this year, as there is barely anything separating the four teams involved.
How many days until #Kosova is back in action guys?#CYPKOS | 🇨🇾🇽🇰 pic.twitter.com/PemBG3F1M7— Kosovan Football 🇽🇰 (@kosovanfooty_EN) June 1, 2022
How many days until #Kosova is back in action guys?#CYPKOS | 🇨🇾🇽🇰 pic.twitter.com/PemBG3F1M7
Northern Ireland and Greece are favoured to be the two clubs that will compete for the top spot in the group, however, which makes this game extremely important as either nation can potentially move to the top early on.
Cyprus are, on the other hand, expected to fall drastically short here and face relegation to League D in the Nations League after yet another tough campaign in attempting to qualify for the World Cup.
They won just one game across their 10 fixtures in Group H for Qatar 2022, which resulted in a stunning four goals scored across the entire campaign.
To put that in perspective, this was five goals fewer than bottom-placed Malta who also finished on five points, and worse yet for Cyprus, Malta's only win in Group H even came against Cyprus.
The nation also managed to concede 21 goals in their attempts to make it to the World Cup, and managed to finish an alarming nine points adrift of Slovenia just ahead of them in the table.
In reality, Cyprus were never going to be at Qatar 2022, and attention will swiftly move towards these Nations League games to find some form as they did not play a single game in the March internationals.
Kosovo did, however, and their rise in the FIFA World Rankings continued as a result, with the club destroying Burkina Faso 5-0 on home soil, before travelling to Switzerland where they would leave with a commendable draw after star man, Milot Rashica, scored again.
Alain Giresse's men did struggle tremendously in their attempts to get into the World Cup too, as they finished bottom of Group B with just one win, five goals scored and 15 conceded from only eight games. Their one win was also met with five defeats.
Kosovo are great at times, but Cyprus did show some defensive capabilities in their World Cup qualifiers, as they saw under 2.5 goals in 2 of their last five games. Forebet predicts a draw here and for the game to also see under 2.5 goals.