Slovenia vs Slovakia

The 2022 World Cup qualifying gets underway this midweek as Slovenia and Slovakia go head-to-head at the Stadion Stožice in an intriguing Group H contest.

Seeking their first appearance at the World Cup finals since 2010, Slovenia take the field on the back of a brace of single-goal margin defeats. Sitting three points adrift of the automatic passage to Qatar 2022, the Slovenias are chasing back-to-back World Cup qualifying wins as pre-match favorites. A rock-solid backline headlined by star goalkeeper Jan Oblak has managed six clean sheets in their last eight internationals. An improving defensive record comes very much in handy, given that four of their five H2Hs in the 21st century have witnessed one or both sides fail to get on the scoresheet (W3, D1, L1). There should be no shortage of confidence among the home fans, as Slovenia have suffered just one defeat across their last 11 competitive home outings (W6, D4).

On the other, Slovakia head into proceedings unbeaten in all three qualifying matches (W1, D2), trailing the top-two sides in Group H by a single point. The Slovakians must be bearing a negative overall H2H record in their minds ahead going into this affair (W1, D2, L3). That, coupled with the fact they have failed to trouble the scoreboard three times across their last four away internationals, could dampen Slovakia’s hopes of maintaining their unbeaten start to this World Cup qualifying campaign. Taking only competitive action into account, the ‘Falcons’ have returned just three victories from their last 13 road trips (D2, L8) prior to their group stage fiasco at Euro 2020. Speaking of Slovakia’s lack of firepower in the front third, Stefan Tarkovic’s side drew a blank seven times during that 13-game sequence.