The second international break of the season sees Austria host Kazakhstan in League B of the Nations League. The hosts have a real chance to get promoted to League A this year, while Kazakhstan are favourites to get relegated to League C. Slovenia and Norway make up the rest of the group.
Both teams come into this match needing a win to kick start their campaign. Since their impressive European Championship performances, Austria are without a win, while it has been even longer for Kazakhstan.
Austria Predicted Lineup - Patrick Pentz; Alexander Prass, Philipp Lienhart, Stefan Posch, Philipp Mwene; Nicolas Seiwald, Konrad Laimer; Patrick Wimmer, Marcel Sabitzer, Romano Schmid; Christoph Baumgartner
In their last match, Austria lost to a late goal from Erling Haaland. They looked good for large parts of the game, as they also did against Slovenia in their opening match of this campaign. Unfortunately on both occasions they walked away without a victory. This was to the disappointment of their fans who had hoped to build on their impressive Euro campaign.
Patrick Wimmer is yet to return to the heights of the 22/23 campaign where he managed 12 goal involvements, but he is still young and definitely a threat for Austria. He is capable of playing in any of the three positions behind the main striker and appears to have impressed manager Ralf Rangnick.
Kazakhstan Predicted Lineup - Igor Shatsky; Yan Vorogovsky, Nuraly Alip, Aleksandr Marochkin, Serhiy Malyi, Marat Bystrov; Maksim Samorodov, Bakhtiyar Zaynutdinov, Askhat Tagybergen, Ramazan Orazov; Abat Aymbetov
Kazakhstan have a whole host of experienced players from Kazakh and Russian domestic football, but not so many from European leagues. In fact, only three of their players play in the rest of Europe, two in Turkey and one in Denmark.
One of those in Turkey is 26-year-old midfielder Bakhtiyar Zaynutdinov, who plays for Besiktas. He is Kazakhstan’s all time top goalscorer with 14 goals. The nation has only existed since the end of the Soviet Union, but you would think that they might have produced at least one exciting talent since then.
Since 2010, these sides have met just four times, in two separate qualifying campaigns. In 2010 and 2011 they met in qualifiers for the 2012 European Championships, and then the sides met twice in 2012 as well.
16th Oct 2012 - Austria 4-0 Kazakhstan - World Cup Qualifiers
12th Oct 2012 - Kazakhstan 0-0 Austria - World Cup Qualifiers
11th Oct 2011 - Kazakhstan 0-0 Austria - Euro Qualifiers
7th Sept 2010 - Austria 2-0 Kazakhstan - Euro Qualifiers
This game is likely to be quite easy for Austria despite their recent disappointing performances. They are miles ahead of Kazakhstan in terms of quality, and they have home advantage too.
Kazakhstan don’t score many goals, and Austria are too prolific either, but their defence is what sets them apart from this week’s visitors, so they should be comfortable here.
With all of this in mind, our team of professional experts have decided that the best tip for this game is for Austria to Win to Nil. Odds of 3/4 on Parimatch means that a £10 bet could see a potential return of £17.50.
(odds subject to change)
Austria 2-0 Kazakhstan
Elsewhere in the Nations League this week is England’s match against Greece and Italy hosting Belgium.
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