Bosnia-Herzegovina VS Iceland

Bosnia & Herzegovina and Iceland lock horns in this EURO 2024 Qualification Group J battle at Bilino Polje in Zenica early Friday morning Beijing time. This is the first round of qualification but the stakes are high as every match is very important in this group with a total of six teams. Portugal are, of course, massive favorites to win the group. The team which finishes in second place does also earn a ticket to the tournament. I would expect either Slovakia or Bosnia to finish second but would give Bosnia a slight edge. Bosnian football has been in slight decline in recent years, no denying that. They were not even close to qualifying for the World Cup 2022. Even so, they did win their UEFA Nations League Group last year with a total of 11 points to their account. Finland, Montenegro and Romania were the other teams in this group and are all better teams than Iceland! However, Icelandic football has declined massively from their glory days and there was a scandal in Iceland related to the national team a few years ago which affected the team and led to many fans turning their backs. The situation is now somewhat better but Iceland simply lacks quality these days. Many football fans probably remember them beating England in the EURO 2024 but since then the decline has been significant in defense, in the midfield and in the offense. Their FIFA ranking is 63th which is definitely too high. I would rate them in the 74th or 75th place in my world power rating that reflects the teams' pure class with their best possible lineup. I do not trust their overvalued coach too much, he is not great tactically and I also question his skills as a leader. Furthermore, according to my sources the atmosphere within the team is also far from optima. The hosts, on the other hand, occupy the 57th place in the ranking but I have them in the 49th place in my power rating.

Bosnia lost to Romania away from in their most recent game 1-4. Yes. Romania were slightly the better team and deserved to win but the final score is still very misleading and might affect the odds too much here. Bosnia even had 52% ball possession and recorded more total passes, completed passes and dangerous attacks. Both teams had 94 attacks and Romania did create more scoring chances. Before this they beat Montenegro, which is a small country but are surprisingly dangerous team. Bosnia had 54% ball possession and recorded more total passes, completed passes and dangerous attacks (59-35), scoring chances and shots on target. The final score was 1-0 but Bosnia could easily have scored several goals. Before this they beat my home country, Finland, 3-2 at home and did deserve the three points. Before the loss to Romania their latest defeat happened almost a year ago against Georgia 0-1 but were massively unlucky and would have deserved a win! Iceland lost their latest game against Sweden at a neutral location 1-2. Before this they failed to beat a very small football country, Estonia – 1-1 was the final score. Furthermore, in November 2022 they needed penalties to beat lowly teams Latvia and Lithuania and also lost to South Korea and Saudi Arabia without scoring a goal. Indeed, they have been lame offensively for quite a long time and have last scored more than once during the 90 minutes of play in the summer of 2002 against Israel, not a strong team, eight games ago.. Their offense lacks speed, structure, passing accuracy and individual skill. The hosts have a clear edge in all areas of the game here! Led by the "evergreen" Edin Dzeko, I expect Bosnia-Herzegovina to kick-start the Faruk Hadzibegic (the new coach) era and have a 63% chance to win here. Odds of around 1.80 are widely available on the betting market at the time of writing this preview early Thursday morning Beijing time but the odds have seem to be dropping and I expect them to be cut even further before the kick off as smart money is expected to pile up on the hosts. Yes, Dzeko is unarguably past his prime but will surely cause a lot of problems to the shaky Icelandic defense which is often pretty poorly structured. Bosnia have many other talented offensive players as well and their players are on average much better than the visitors in terms of individual skill. Bosnia have pretty demanding but enthusiastic fans and I expect the atmosphere at the stadium to be pretty good here after positive results in the Nations League! Iceland have managed to win just two of their most recent 18 games across all competitions, with three victories coming in their previous 24 games.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

北京时间周五凌晨，在泽尼察的比利诺波列，波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那在2024年欧洲杯预选赛J组的比赛中对峙。这是小组赛的第一轮，但在这个总共有6支球队的小组中，每一场比赛都非常重要。当然，葡萄牙队是小组第一的大热门。获得第二名的球队也将获得锦标赛的入场券。我预计斯洛伐克或波斯尼亚将获得第二名，但波斯尼亚将略微领先。不可否认，波斯尼亚足球近年来略有下滑。他们甚至离2022年世界杯的参赛资格都差得远。即便如此，他们还是以11分的成绩赢得了去年的欧足联国家联赛小组冠军。芬兰，黑山和罗马尼亚是这个小组的其他球队，他们都比冰岛强!然而，冰岛足球已经从他们的辉煌时代大幅下降，几年前冰岛国家队的丑闻影响了球队，导致许多球迷转身离开。现在的情况有所好转，但冰岛现在缺乏质量。许多球迷可能还记得他们在2024年欧洲杯上击败了英格兰，但自那以后，他们在防守、中场和进攻方面都出现了明显的下滑。他们的国际足联排名是第63位，这确实太高了。在我的世界实力排名中，我会把他们排在第74或75位，这反映了球队的纯粹级别和最佳阵容。我不太相信他们被高估的教练，他的战术不是很好，我也怀疑他的领导能力。此外，根据我的消息来源，团队内部的氛围也远未达到最佳状态。另一方面，东道主在排名中占据了第57位，但在我的功率评级中，他们排在第49位。

波斯尼亚在最近的一场比赛中以1比4输给了罗马尼亚。是的。罗马尼亚的表现稍好，理应获胜，但最终的比分仍然具有很大的误导性，可能会对胜率产生很大的影响。波斯尼亚甚至拥有52%的控球率，记录了更多的总传球、完成传球和危险进攻。两支球队都有94次进攻，罗马尼亚确实创造了更多的得分机会。在此之前，他们击败了黑山，这是一个小国，但却是一支令人惊讶的危险球队。波黑拥有54%的控球率，记录了更多的总传球、完成传球和危险进攻(59-35)，获得了更多的机会和射正。最终比分是1-0，但波黑本可以轻松地进几个球。在此之前，他们在主场3-2击败了我的祖国芬兰队，这三分当之无愧。在输给罗马尼亚之前，他们最近的一次失败发生在大约一年前0-1输给格鲁吉亚，但他们非常不幸，应该赢得一场胜利!冰岛队最近在中立场地以1比2负于瑞典队。在此之前，他们未能击败一个非常小的足球国家，爱沙尼亚- 1-1是最终比分。此外，在2022年11月，他们需要点球才能击败实力较弱的拉脱维亚和立陶宛，还在没有进球的情况下输给了韩国和沙特阿拉伯。事实上，他们在很长一段时间里进攻都很糟糕，最近一次进球是在2002年夏天对阵以色列的90分钟比赛中，那是8场比赛前，以色列不是一支强队。他们的进攻缺乏速度、结构、传球精度和个人技术。主队在比赛的各个方面都有明显的优势!在“常青树”哲科的带领下，我预计波黑将开启法鲁克·哈济贝格奇(新教练)的时代，并有63%的机会在这里获胜。在北京时间周四凌晨撰写这篇文章时，博彩市场上的赔率普遍在1.80左右，但赔率似乎在下降，我预计在开赛前赔率会进一步下降，因为聪明的钱预计会聚集在东道主身上。是的，哲科毫无疑问已经过了他的巅峰期，但他肯定会给冰岛不稳定的防守带来很多问题。波黑也有很多有天赋的进攻球员，他们的球员在个人技术方面比客队平均水平要好得多。波黑的球迷要求很高，但很热情，我希望在国联取得积极成绩后，球场的气氛会很好!冰岛队在最近18场比赛中只赢了2场，在之前的24场比赛中赢了3场。