UZBEKISTAN v QATAR
Tuesday 28th March 2017 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Football – World – Asia Section World Cup Qualifier Betting Tips
Uzbekistan will head into their Group A World Cup qualifier looking to avoid a third consecutive defeat when they play host to group wooden-spooners Qatar in Tashkent today, as the hosts look to consolidate at least a play-off position.
Uzbekistan sit in third place in Group A despite two recent defeats on the trot to Korea Republic and Syria respectively, but it should be remembered that both of these losses came away from home, and they return to their Paxtakor Markaziy Stadion for today’s clash against Qatar having won two of their first three matches on home soil to date.
These home wins were registered over Syria and China, while their one defeat so far at home came against Group A leaders Iran. Incidentally, Uzbekistan have thrashed Qatar in their previous two meetings, 4-0 and 5-1 respectively.
Onto Qatar then, and the visitors may have qualified for the 2022 World Cup (by virtue of a controversial decision to hand them the hosting of this prestigious tournament), but they’ve crashed out of the running for Russia 2018 in emphatic style.
Qatar sit bottom of Group A with just four points to their name and one win during qualification to date which was a 1-0 home win over Syria, and they would now require a miracle (and the implosion of third placed Uzbekistan) for them to attain at least a play-off place in the group.
Qatar hold a poor away record of 0-1-2 2/5 but stopped the rot on their travels last time out with a point away at China in a dour 0-0 stalemate. However, Qatar have failed to score in three of their last four away matches and I think they’ll struggle in Tashkent again today.
Pick: Uzbekistan AH-0.25 @ 1.61 Bet Victor
