In Group I, Switzerland are by far the best team and should easily gain first place. The rest of the teams are relatively equal in strength (besides Andora), and we should see an exciting battle for the remaining spot for EURO 2024. 

Israel are coming to these qualifications after a surprising success in UEFA Nations League B. They won first place in Group 2 with eight points in four matches and earned a chance to qualify for EURO through the playoffs if they failed to qualify through the Qualifiers. They were in the Group with Iceland, Albania, and Russia (they were excluded from the competition). After the UEFA Nations League, they played three friendly matches. They won against Zambia and lost to Cyprus and Malta. 

Israel are a team which almost always played high-scoring games in recent years. In 2022, Israel played nine games with an average of 3.77 goals per game.

Kosovo were solid in the UEFA Nations League C, Group 2. They finished 2nd in a group with Greece, Northern Ireland, and Cyprus. But that is not too strange if we take a closer look at their squad. Most of their players are part of good European teams. After the UEFA Nations League, Kosovo drew 1:1 and 2:2 against Armenia and Faroe Islands. 

Kosovo are a much better team when playing at home. On the road, they struggled in the past, but recently they are slowly improving. Kosovo lost four of the last eight games over the previous two years. Still, they managed to score at least one goal in six of those eight road games. 

Israel vs Kosovo pick: Both teams to score

Israel played only high-scoring games in the previous period, especially at home. At home, they had nine consecutive games where both teams scored. In addition, Israel scored at least two goals in a game in the last eight home matches. 

Even though Kosovo often struggles to achieve a good results on the road, they rarely fail to score in those games. In the previous ten road matches, Kosovo failed to score only in two games – against Greece and Sweden. 

Starting goalkeeper in recent years, Ofir Marciano (Feyenoord), is not called for the first two games. Omri Glazer (Hapoel Beer Sheva) will likely start at the goal.

Defender Nir Bitton (Maccabi Tel Aviv) is injured and will miss the game.

After 40 appearances for Israel, 30-year-old Munas Dabbur (Hoffenheim) retired from national football.

35-year-old team captain Bibras Natcho (Partizan Belgrade) will play his last match for the national team against Kosovo. That will be his 88th appearance for the team, and he will be tied for fourth place with Alon Harazi on the all-time list. The National football association announced that Natcho will stay in the system, most likely as a part of the youth department. 

Kosovo’s coach, Alain Giresse, spoke to the media before the Israel game. He said they are in one of the weaker groups, and their goal is qualifying for the EURO. 

Elbasan Rashani (Clermont) and Benjamin Kololli (Shimizu S-Pulse) are injured and will miss the game.

Albion Rrahmani is the only player invited to the squad from the domestic league. Valon Berisha is playing for Melbourne City, and the rest of the players are playing for good European teams, mainly in Italy, England, France, Germany, and Turkey.

Armenia host Turkey in the opening round of the 2024 EURO qualifying campaign in Group D on Saturday afternoon in Yerevan.

The hosts will be hoping to get a potential upset in the section with Croatia, Wales, Turkey, and Latvia, although it is very hard to rate their chances in such competition.

Armenia opened the previous qualifying campaign in a fantastic fashion but only to ruin everything with a horrendous finish.

They have lost each of the last three World Cup qualifiers, conceding ten goals in the process. The back-to-back home losses to North Macedonia (0-5) and Germany (1-4) were particularly painful.

The Armenians then had an even worse run in the UEFA Nations League, losing five of six matches against the likes of Scotland, Ukraine, and Republic of Ireland. The team allowed four goals to Scotland and five goals to Ukraine in the previous two home matches.

Turkey, on the other side, easily topped their respective group in the UEFA Nations League C, winning the opening four games in the section with Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, and Lithuania.

The team led by German manager further boosted confidence with back-to-back 2-1 wins over Scotland and Czech Republic in friendlies in November last year.

Armenia vs Turkey Head-to-head

• This will only be the third head to head match between Armenia and Turkey.
• The teams previously locked horns in the 2010 World Cup qualifications when Turkey claimed two separate 2-0 wins over the Armenians.

Armenia vs Turkey Prediction

Turkey have been playing attacking-minded football ever since Kuntz took charge. We have seen the Over 2.5 goals FT & Both Teams To Score option landing in each of their last four games across competitions.

Knowing how poor the Armenians have been defensively in recent qualifying affairs, we just have to take the Over 2.5 goals FT bet at the 2.00 odds. If you fancy a more exciting option, we would go with Turkey to win & Both Teams To Score at the sky-high 4.00 odds.