Slovakia – Luxembourg

Slovakia should confidently beat Luxembourg at home

Slovakia and Luxembourg are drawn in the same group as Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, and Liechtenstein in the 2024 European Championship qualifying round. Given Slovakia's tradition, they should be well placed to fight for a runners-up spot. With such obvious ambitions, Francesco Calzona's side have no moral and strategic reasons to lose points on home soil against one of the group's top two underdogs. The Slovakian side have an estimated €147.6m value of their entire squad, and sit 54th in the FIFA World Rankings. Luxembourg are far more modest on both counts. The diminutive state's squad is valued at €25.98 million, while it occupies joint 92nd place in the world rankings. And half of that amount are midfielders from Mainz and Spartak Moscow - Barreiro and Martins, respectively. Bookmakers before the match in Trnava suggested the home side as favourites with odds of 1.54 to win. Italian Francesco Calzona was appointed Slovakian head coach in late August 2022, and the team played two official matches in September. The Slovaks lost 1-2 to Azerbaijan and drew 1-1 against Belarus. The results were far below the Slovak squad's ambitions. The friendlies that followed in November had an obvious goal - to prepare the Slovak national team for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers. The game against Luxembourg will be the one for which the Italian international will be held responsible, so Slovakia will not be held back by a domestic fixture. In recent years, traditionally weak Luxembourg have risen to the level of Europe's mid-table sides. In qualifying for the 2021 World Cup, however, the representatives of the principality managed to pull off just one sensation, beating Ireland away. In last year's League of Nations, Luxembourg were favoured over the Faroe Islands and Lithuania, but lost to Turkey to remain in Ligue C for the following season. Despite the upsurge in the visitors' level of play in the upcoming match, Slovakia will start the qualifying tournament with a win.