Northern Ireland vs Belarus Predictions

• Northern Ireland’s last seven wins have all been to nil
• Belarus have failed to score in six of their last eight games
• Northern Ireland have conceded once in their last give matches

Hosts could shut out away side

Northern Ireland’s 5-0 win over Bulgaria last time out was only the fourth time in the nation’s history that they have netted that many goals so there should be a positive atmosphere around Windsor Park as they host Belarus on Friday.

Issac Price scored a hat-trick in that game and he is part of a new wave of players coming through under Michael O’Neill.

Captain Conor Bradley, brothers Pierce and Dion Charles, Ross McCausland and Price are all aged 21 or younger, signifying the end of an era of the players who reached the knockout stages at Euro 2016.

Those youngsters did play out a goalless draw with Belarus in the reverse fixture but that was played behind closed doors in Hungary so a low-key match was understandable.

With the Windsor Park faithful behind the home team this should be a different affair however and the Green and White Army are fancied to make it six wins from their last ten games with a victory here.

Belarus are solid defensively, they have three clean sheets from their last four outings, but they struggle going forwards.

The visitors have only scored twice in their last eight games and lost the shot count 15-6 in the reverse fixture so their issues in front of goal could be the difference between these two teams.

Both of these sides are chasing promotion in this Nations League group but the hosts appear to have the attacking talent to get the job done.

Take Northern Ireland to win a game but don’t expect a high-scoring affair. They should be able to grind out a low-scoring victory in front of their home support.

Veterans Luka Modric, Ivan Perisic and Andrej Kramaric make up the spine of this team, all three of them started in the reverse fixture, and they are not the players that they once were.

With question marks easy to pose about both teams, it looks worth taking neither of them to keep a clean sheet in this one.

Side with both teams to find the net at Hampden Park. Correct score backers should also consider a 1-1 draw, three of the last seven meetings between these two teams have ended in stalemate.