LiontipsCyprus vs Russia. Predictions and Betting Tips for World Cup qualification
Command Analysis
Cyprus national team performs unsuccessfully in all tournaments for a number of years. In the Nations League Cypriots finished on the last place of the group with Montenegro, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan, so in the next edition of that tournament they will play in League D, the lowest division.
In the qualification for the World Cup Nikos Kostenoglou's team is unsuccessful as well - after four rounds they are at the bottom of the group. But after a victory Cypriots can rise to the top - second-placed Russians are only three points above. But it will be extremely difficult for Cyprus - in the previous round Cypriots were beaten by Malta (0:3).
After a failure at Euro 2020 Russia national team appointed the new head coach, Valery Karpin. Head coach didn't have enough time to prepare his team for a match against Croatia, but he made a number of changes in the squad. He called up many young players and changed the formation - Russians started the match against Croatia without nominal forwards.
Karpin failed to completely change the style of play in such a short amount of time, but his team was looking brave in this match, especially in the first half. Teams started the match pretty aggressively, but it didn't last long, so game ended with a 0:0 score. It was not a bad result for the Russians - they kept the second position in the group and didn't let Croatia to break away from them.
Mario Fernandes and Alexey Ionov didn't came to Nicosia, they got injuries in the match against Croatia, but they will probably recover in time for the match against Malta.
Trends
СтавкаCorrect score 0:2
Cyprus suffered two out of six most recent home defeats with that score
СтавкаRussia to score in the first half
In two most recent head-to-head matches this bet was successful
СтавкаCyprus to not score
Cyprus scored only one goal in seven most recent matches
Tip and bets
Cyprus national team is in a terrible form now, they are looking weak on defense and conceded seven goals in two most recent matches, things are not better on the offense - they scored only one goal in seven most recent games. Russia will definitely play for a win, so visitors will be aggressive on the offense, Cypriots are unlikely to put up a fight.
In our opinion, hosts won't stand a chance. Our prediction - Asian handicap (-1) on Russia
Russia national team put up a decent performance against Croatia, but couldn't record a victory. Today they will play against easier opponent, Cyprus are in a long crisis, so favourite should be able to record a confident victory with a comfortable score.
Our second bet is on Russia to win by a two goal margin
