England remain top of Group C in Euro 2024 qualifying, but two of the teams at the bottom of the group meet on Tuesday night at 7.45pm as Malta face North Macedonia. Below we look at the betting angles for you to consider ahead of kick-off. 

Team news

Malta warmed up for this qualifier with a rare win, a 1-0 success vs Gibraltar thanks to Joseph Mbong’s goal. Jodi Jones is now the name most familiar to English fans, with the Notts County winger now playing up top for Malta after making his debut in 2022. 

North Macedonia head into this match on the back of a creditable 1-1 draw with Italy, and it is likely that Blagoja Milevski will name an unchanged team. Former Leeds United player Ezgjan Alioski will line-up at left wing-back while Trabzonspor’s Enis Bardhi will look to add to the goal he scored against Italy from the number ten position. 

North Macedonia to win and under 2.5 goals

Malta may be coming into this game on the back of a win but North Macedonia have actually enjoyed some success during this qualification period. That 1-1 draw with Italy was the highlight of their campaign so far, and they’ve overcome that 7-0 hammering at the hands of England in June. 

A narrow defeat to Ukraine was frustrating given they had ten men, but they only lost 3-2 late on. England game aside, they’ve shown some good form, including a 2-1 win over Malta on home soil in the first match of this qualification group. Although Malta are slowly improving, there is still a gap in quality between the two sides and after a positive draw against Italy, North Macedonia will have to win here to keep any hopes of finishing in the top two alive. 

The goals half of this bet comes with the thought that many will be underestimating Malta. They are actually pretty decent defensively and three of their last four matches have ended 1-0. One of those was a narrow defeat to Ukraine, while only England have managed to score more than two goals past them since November 2021. This is likely to be a tight encounter, but we believe the away side will just edge it. 

Malta 0-1 North Macedonia 

To gain more value using the same theory, the correct score market is the one to go for. Malta’s habit of one-goal games recently, combined with North Macedonia’s impressive performance against Italy means that the 1-0 away win at 9/2 feels like the most sensible punt. North Macedonia won by one goal the last time these sides met and they also beat the Faroe Islands, a similarly ranked nation, 1-0 back in March.