Football Bet of the Day: Slovakia offer excellent value

Sunday 19 November offers up a couple of international Euro 2024 qualifiers for us to take a look at, and that is where our Football Bet of the Day comes from, as Bosnia-Herzegovina host Slovakia, with kick-off at 19:45.

Slovakia have enjoyed an impressive qualification campaign in a testing group, and have now secured second spot and with it their place in the finals next summer. They’ve only finished below a Portugal side who have won nine from nine and pushed them all the way in both games, losing 1-0 and 3-2 to one of the world’s best squads.

That recent 3-2 provided the only two goals that Portugal have conceded across this entire qualification campaign, so Slovakia have proven themselves to be a very good international outfit in 2023. They’ve amassed 19 points from nine games, and not lost against any other side in the group, winning six and drawing once on their way to Euro 2024. 

They beat Iceland 4-2 last time out and with the likes of Ondrej Duda, Milan Škriniar and Martin Dubravka, have a really solid spine to their team. For me, it is slightly odd that they are priced at 2/1 to beat Bosnia away from home, given the disparity in quality between the two teams. 

Slovakia won the reverse fixture 2-0 and although they have now already qualified, this will still serve as an important test for their squad. Bosnia-Herzegovia have not impressed during their qualification campaign, losing six of their nine matches so far. Their only wins have come against minnows Liechtenstein home and away, while they also beat Iceland on the opening day. 

Any promise from that win quickly evaporated however, and they were heavily beaten by Luxembourg in their last fixture. This is likely to be another tough test for them, and I am surprised they have been priced as the 7/5 favourites by Betfred.