Russia vs Slovakia: prediction for the 2022 World Cup qualifier

In August Valery Karpin became the new manager of Russia national team, now he will try to help the team to qualify for the World Cup. In the first match with Karpin in charge Russians put up an impressive performance and picked up one point in the match against Croatia, their main competitor for the first spot in the group - a goalless draw is a pretty good result for Russia. 

In the next match Russia secured a confident victory over Cyprus (2:0) on away, scoring a goal in each of the halves. Russians were a clear favourite in the match against Malta, but it was not their best match - Russian team recorded a 2:0 victory, but their performance was far from perfect. 

Russians are currently at the second spot in the group with 13 points, they are behind Croatia only on tiebreakers. 

Slovakia national team started the World Cup qualification with a match against Malta - everyone thought that Stefan Tarkovic's team will pick up three points easily, but Malta doesn't want to surrender. Visiting team scored two goals, but failed to hold on to the lead - a sensational 2:2 draw seriously affected the chances of Slovakian team. 

Nonetheless, in the next match Slovakia recorded a 2:1 victory over Russia at home and got back into a fight for the World Cup spot. The Falcons failed to perform successfully in September matches, they suffered a 0:1 defeat to Croatia and then drew to Slovenia (1:1). A 2:0 victory over Cyprus in the third match helped Slovakia to climb up to the third spot in the group, but they are still four points behind Russia and Croatia.