Bosnia and Herzegovina will face an away challenge in the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifier Group J match. They will be going all out to make it back-to-back wins. Currently, Bosnia and Herzegovina are fourth in the group with six points, and they beat Liechtenstein 2-1 in their last match. Iceland, who is in the fifth place, defeated Luxembourg 3-1 in their last match.
The popular Icelandic side have had stellar performances at Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup, as well as a run to the last eight of their first-ever Euro finals. However, they failed to attend Euro 2020. At the moment, the first or second position seems unattainable for them due to their unimpressive record in this group. Iceland are in fifth place with just three points from their five group games, seven points behind second-placed Slovakia.
At the end of March, Iceland had thrashed Liechtenstein 7-0, but have lost all three of their matches since then, including a 3-1 loss against Luxembourg last Friday. They now have three consecutive home games against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, with Iceland needing to win all of them to be in contention for a top-two finish in the final stages of qualifying.
Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina will come into this game on the back of a 2-1 victory over Liechtenstein on Friday, in which Edin Dzeko scored early on before Simon Luhigl's own goal made it 2-0. Sandro Wolfinger reduced the gap to one goal in the 21st minute, but the hosts held on for the win, securing the three points, which takes their tally to six points in Group J , enough to place fourth in the group. Bosnia and Herzegovina are four points behind second-placed Slovakia with the same number of matches, which shows the importance of achieving a positive result in this competition.
Bosnia and Herzegovina have never played in a Europa League final, but they did appear at the 2014 World Cup, where they were eventually eliminated in the group stage. In March, they beat Iceland 3-0 at home, but before that they lost three consecutive matches in the group stage, only recovering to win against Liechtenstein last Friday.
By analyzing the recent form of both teams' matches, Bosnia and Herzegovina have picked up steam in recent matches, while Iceland have hit a low point.
Comparing the recent records and form of Iceland and Bosnia and Herzegovina, we find that Bosnia and Herzegovina are more likely to come out on top in this match. Iceland had a disappointing performance against Luxembourg and they struggled for any real confidence to go for a positive result. On the contrary, Bosnia and Herzegovina have performed better in their recent matches and their victory in their last game has injected them with confidence.
Therefore, we expect the result of this match to be Iceland 1-2 Bosnia and Herzegovina. This win will greatly increase Bosnia and Herzegovina's hopes of making it out of the tournament, while Iceland will need to find their form quickly to make a difference in the upcoming matches.
