Belgium, Switzerland and Iceland League A Group 2 preview
Not too much of a surprise that the Belgians are going to running as strong odds-on favourites to the tune of 2/5 at bet365* (betting odds taken on September 1st, 2018 at 11:30 pm) to win this group at all. The Red Devils enjoyed a pretty good summer at the World Cup and they will be expected to be unopposed on their march to winning this group over Switzerland and Iceland.
League A Group 2 Winner Odds*
Belgium 4/9
Switzerland 11/4
Iceland 8/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on September 1st, 2018 at 11:30 pm)
Belgium
The Red Devils had that impressive to run to the World Cup semi-finals in the summer, eventually ending up third in the tournament. That was a great return, including knocking out Brazil, after such an easy qualification campaign to get there. With Roberto Martinez pretty much keeping the squad as it is, it’s hard not to see them go out and win this group.
Belgium are 5/1 odds* (betting odds taken on September 1st, 2018 at 11:30 pm) to win the entire UEFA Nations League 2018 outright and given that they should comfortably be in the final four from League A, then they aren’t a bad price at all. They also have Romelu Lukaku who is one of the front runners to be the top scorer in the Nations League but Eden Hazard has started the new Premier League season much brighter than him.
Switzerland
Switzerland couldn’t get past the round of sixteen at the 2018 World Cup although they can proudly hold their heads high and point to their 1-1 draw with Brazil in the group stage. They were eliminated in the first round of knockout matches by Sweden. The Swiss aren’t a bad side really and have their key man in Xherdan Shaqiri and they shape up pretty well. They have a lot more of a positive set up in place than they used to have.
Iceland
Iceland were just terrific at the 2018 World Cup despite only getting a point in the group stage, which came against Argentina in their opening match. They just couldn’t find the goals to follow it up and add to that fantastic reward of a point. Iceland fell short against Nigeria and Croatia although it’s fair to say that they weren’t really outplayed heavily in either of those matches.
UEFA Nations League Winner Odds*
Spain 4/1
France 4/1
Belgium 5/1
Germany 5/1
Italy 9/1
England 12/1
Portugal 14/1
Croatia 16/1
Switzerland 33/1
Poland 50/1
Netherland 50/1
Iceland 88/1
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on September 1st, 2018 at 11:30 pm)
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Prediction
It should be a straight shot for Belgium here to winning the group. The other two are fairly evenly matched and could provide stubborn more than threatening opposition for the Red Devils. It may be a decent call in going for a straight forecast in this one with Belgium first and Switzerland to finish second. They may just have that extra edge going forward to get past Iceland.
