Luxembourg welcome Republic of Ireland to Stade de Luxembourg in their concluding Group A match of UEFA Qualifying for 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Victory would see Luxembourg finish third in Group A whereas a win could see Ireland leapfrog their hosts into third.
Team News
Anthony Moris is ruled out for Luxembourg after he withdrew from the squad after testing positive for Coronavirus prior to Thursday’s win away to Azerbaijan.
Republic of Ireland will be without Jayson Molumby following his withdrawal from the squad with a hamstring injury, which means that Jack Taylor has been called up as Molumby’s replacement.
Stat Attack
- Luxembourg have won just one of their last six meetings against Republic of Ireland (W1, L5).
- Republic of Ireland have won their three previous visits to Luxembourg (W3), scoring eight goals and conceding once.
- Luxembourg have won just one of five matches across all competitions in 2021 (W1, D1, L3).
- Ireland have scored first in four of their six away matches in 2021 across all competitions (W2, D2, L2).
- This is the first match involving Luxembourg and Republic of Ireland to be refereed by Tamas Bognar.
Prediction
Having impressively held Portugal to a goalless draw on Thursday evening with excellent awareness to maximise runs to create chances on top of superb defending, Ireland certainly seem to be on a roll with confidence growing through each of their last five matches.
Luxembourg meanwhile boast a poor home record in 2021 but after comfortably dispatching Azerbaijan on Thursday evening, they will come into this game looking to end their home rut and will physiologically be boosted by their shock win in Dublin in March despite a gulf in quality.
Both teams however are eliminated so can afford to experiment and go for it here but given Ireland’s improved confidence and unbeaten form in their last five matches, I would be shocked if this isn’t an away win.
Prediction: Luxembourg 0-2 ROI
Result: Luxembourg 0-3 ROI