Seeley’s Selections – Northern Ireland v Romania

Northern Ireland have been the surprise package of the Euro 2016 qualifiers and if they can avoid defeat to Romania at Windsor Park on Saturday night, a place at next summer’s finals looks within touching distance.

The Northern Irish haven’t progressed to a major final stage since the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and they’ve never made a European Championship final and I believe that will all change next summer.

Michael O’Neill’s side are always a tough nut to crack at a rocking Windsor Park and despite them not losing in Belfast since November 2013, they are surprisingly the 12/5 underdogs with BoyleSports to win this one.

The Romanians are sitting pretty a point clear of their opponents at the top of Group F and when the two met in the reverse fixture, they showed their true class with a very comfortable 2-0 success. All week they’ve been a very popular choice with BoyleSports punters and are now just 29/20 for the win.

Despite a stack of cash coming for Anghel Iordanescu’s side, I’m not convinced by them. They failed to impress me in their last two matches; a 1-0 home success against the mighty Faroe Islands and a dire 0-0 draw with Bulgaria.

My concern for Romania backers would be that they don’t really have to go out all out for the win as a point will be a great result for both nations and that is exactly what I’m expecting them to get and at the 21/10 with BoyleSports, the draw is the only bet you can contemplate having in the match markets.

Just like the action in Dublin, this one is going to be very, very tight yet again and if you like seeing goals scored in football matches, I’m suggesting you don’t tune into this one.

Being a Romanian supporter in this qualification has been a successful one but not a very exciting one as just EIGHT goals have been scored in their five qualifying matches.

Northern Ireland aren’t much better with just eleven goals scored in their five games and again like in Dublin, under 2.5 goals is short but at 40/85, is my banker bet of the international weekend.

If those prices don’t really float your boat, then I wouldn’t put anybody off the 7/5 on the match seeing less than 1.5 goals at a much more workmanlike price on offer with BoyleSports.

With so much at stake in a lot of the qualifiers this weekend now that we are approaching the business end of the qualification campaigns, goals are going to be at a premium and none more so than in this one.

You might not want to back no goalscorer and feel dirty doing so, but at 11/2 you have to change your mind and get stuck into that price with BoyleSports.

B Lucky!

Seeley’s Selections:
Draw @ 21/10
Under 2.5 Goals @ 40/85
Under 1.5 Goals @ 7/5
No Goalscorer @ 11/2

*Prices correct at time of publication