France vs Albania Predictions

Can World Champions France continue their push for a place at Euro 2020 this weekend? They were beaten at Turkey in the last international break,  leaving their group delicately balanced heading into this weekend’s action. We’re approaching the half-way point in this group, with three sides tied for first place on nine points from a possible 12. It’s incredibly tight as it is, while Albania are sitting just three points shy after a solid start. The visitors could force themselves into contention too, so France need a win this week.

The hosts shouldn’t have much trouble taking a top-two spot given the quality of their opponents. The hostile Istanbul reception they received is by far the toughest they’ll get in this group, while they should expect to complete a clean sweep of their home games. They thumped Iceland 4-0 at home in their only game here so far, but will they rack up quite as many goals when they meet Albania?

Albania last visited France during Euro 2016, when they made their first appearance at the finals. They are hoping to make it back to back visits to the Euros, but they have a tall order to fight off the likes of Iceland and Turkey, never mind the world champions. However, three defeats from four Nations League games means that Albania aren’t getting into the playoffs this time around. They have it all on the line in this group, which suggests that they’ll fall short of making it to the finals.

The one thing the visitors do have is a solid defence, having shown their credentials already in this group. They’ve conceded just three times in four matches, with a clean sheet at Andorra and a 1-0 defeat in Iceland. While the visitors are lacking in their away form – having lost four of their last six games on the road to nil – they are at least consistently solid in holding teams back. Their heaviest defeat in that run was a 3-0 loss at a Spain side who were being tipped for World Cup glory when they met in late-2017.

France have won four home games on the spin, but we don’t expect them to run away with this clash. They should face a decent resistance from an Albania side who will be looking to keep their goal difference in check. As a result, we’re backing a French victory with under 3.5 goals scored. We think this will be a fourth straight home win to nil for France, while we don’t expect them to go full pelt in attack. That has us backing a 2-0 home victory to continue the hosts’ fine form.