Kosovo will be looking to get back to winning ways when they meet with an out-of-form Northern Ireland this Thursday evening at the Pristina City Stadium with the away side here not winning one of their two Nations League games so far.
It's been a disastrous past year for Northern Ireland. Although they managed to end their World Cup qualifiers group on somewhat of a high as they drew with European champions Italy, they've had some torrid defeats to contend with around that draw.
️⚽️ @BlackpoolFC striker Shayne Lavery is confident Northern Ireland will respond positively against Kosovo #GAWA #NorthernIreland #NationsLeague— Northern Ireland (@NorthernIreland) June 7, 2022
️⚽️ @BlackpoolFC striker Shayne Lavery is confident Northern Ireland will respond positively against Kosovo #GAWA #NorthernIreland #NationsLeague
Even with wins, Ian Baraclough's men have made things very tough as they narrowly beat one of the continent's lowest-ranked sides, Lithuania, by a mere goal, while they've even managed to draw with the likes of Bulgaria and lose to the United States of America in the past year.
Northern Ireland even lost to Bulgaria back in October, as Switzerland also drew and beat them around this time. Fast forward to the March internationals, and despite being Luxembourg 3-1, the country also saw defeat come at the hands of Hungary in Belfast.
Then came the Nations League after such a dismal attempt in qualifying for the World Cup where they got just nine points from eight games and scored an embarrassing six goals. Greece were up first in the Nations League League C Group 2, with the Greeks getting a comfortable 1-0 win.
A trip to Cyprus was up next for Northern Ireland, and to cap off a terrible and underwhelming year of action, Jonny Evans and co. drew away to the nation ranked 105th in the world by FIFA. It was just another game the Irish should have been winning, but one more clash they really never looked like doing so.
As for Kosovo, their rise up the FIFA World Rankings has been excellent for them in the past two years, and they’ve got their Nations League campaign off this time around to a relatively decent start with a win and a loss to deal with.
Alain Giresse's side initially defeated Cyprus away from home in a comfortable 2-0 victory that saw Valon Berisha and Edon Zhegrova get a goal each. Kosovo were booted off top spot when they met with Greece, however, as they lost 1-0 at the Pristina City Stadium to a Greek outfit improving in form each week right now.
Despite the form, Kosovo’s home record is poor, and Forebet predicts an away win here for Northern Ireland and for the game to see under 2.5 goals.