Austria vs. North Macedonia – Prediction (EURO Qualification – 16.11.2019)

Preview and Teams Comparison.

Following back-to-back defeats to open this Euro 2020 qualifying campaign (ECQ), Austria have since remained unbeaten in their subsequent six matches (W5, D1) and will qualify with just a point from this game. Defensively sound, the hosts have conceded just twice in 564 minutes of play since their last defeat. Austria’s Marko Arnautović leads the way with six ECQ goals in the form of three braces. In spite of the fact that there has been ten goals scored across Austria’s last two home games, each of the ten international matches on Austrian soil before those two saw under 3.5 match goals. Notably though, the first-half alone averaged 1.0 goals per match across the last 12 home games whilst the second-half averaged a slightly higher 1.33.

Austria received exactly two bookings in three of their four ECQ home games. Macedonia have registered 14 bookings across their four ECQ away games (3.5 per-match average). All of Macedonia’s group defeats came after a drawn first half, and they drew the only game in which they trailed at the break.

Although the reverse fixture saw Macedonia thrashed 4-1, their competitive away games have left something to be desired in terms of goal-action: eight of the last nine saw under 2.5 goals with 77.78% seeing exactly two. Macedonia’s Elif Elmas has helped his side to victory with two separate braces in ECQ (40% of team total), though he is yet to score on the road. Macedonia conceded the opening goal in five of their last eight away games, but did recover to draw in three of those five games in which they shipped first. Perhaps tellingly, each of the three teams they did open the scoring against were ranked (by FIFA) lower than themselves.

Match Info and Live Scores.