On Thursday night, at 19:45, Slovenia and Greece will face in the first stage of the UEFA Nations League groups. The two are part of the third value echelon, in League C, group 1. The national teams from Moldova and Kosovo also play there. The Greeks start as favorites in 1st place.
Slovenia is without a victory in the Nations League, after six matches, and its last four games in the competition have had less than three goals. No wonder, given that the Balkan gate is defended by Jan Oblak, considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world today! From the Greek camp, it is possible that the most dangerous football player will be Dimitris Limnios, who scored the goal of the Greeks’ victory, in the last trip. PAOK’s top is announced as the starter in this match.
The first goal scored in Ljubljana could be very important, considering that Slovenia is undefeated in the last 7 games in which it opened the score. Greece is even better from this point of view: it has not lost 14 matches in a row in which it scored the first! Slovenia played well in the Euro 2020 qualifiers, but had a difficult group and the 4 victories obtained in the preliminaries were not enough in the end.
The white-greens managed to escape without a goal received only twice in the last 10 home games, reason for Elada will try to take advantage of the possible errors of the host team. Another interesting statistic tells us that in 6 of the last 7 home matches of Slovenia they had a goal scored until the break. Greece has a good morale, knowing that it has won zero its previous (and only) two visits to Slovenia, and the white-blues are undefeated in 5 direct matches.
It should be noted, however, that in 8 of the last 11 matches of the Greeks, he scored at least once after the 70th minute, so we expect to see a spectacular game at the end. Slovenia comes after an exciting match with Poland (2-3), while Greece has three consecutive active victories, all in the Euro 2020 preliminaries: 2-1 with Bosnia, 1-0 with Armenia and 2-1 with Finland. The qualification was not obtained, however. The last direct duel took place in 2012, a draw in Austria, score 1-1. Since then, however, both bands have experienced a significant decline in value.
At least two goals have been scored in all 5 direct duels so far;
Greece has three wins (3-0, 3-0, 2-0) and two draws (1-1, 2-2) against Slovenia;
In 6 of the last 10 matches of Greece, at least three goals have been scored;
Slovenia has not recorded a draw in eight consecutive games;
PREDICTION: Over 1,5 goals @ 1,50
