This Sunday’s Euro 2020 Qualifier in Haifa comes from Group G. It sees two sides who will at least view qualification as a possibility meet, although both Israel and Austria are still awaiting their first victories after one game. Defeat for either here would leave them with a huge amount of work to do over the rest of the campaign.
Israel drew 1-1 at home to Slovenia in their opening match on Thursday night. It was a reasonable start but they would have been keen to win one of their opening two fixtures with home advantage so they’ll be gunning for three points here. Poland are the favourites to win this group which could potentially leave as many as four teams jostling for 2nd.
Austria will certainly expect to be one of those sides and they did make it to the most recent European Championship in 2016. However they’ve declined badly since then, making little impact on World Cup Qualifying while they finished 2nd to Bosnia in their Nations League group. Their bid to reach Euro 2020 started with a 1-0 home defeat to Poland on Thursday, which really ramps up the pressure on them here.
This promises to be a pretty even game but there isn’t any significant reason to fancy either to win it. Israel have only won 4 of their last 15 internationals. Their recent record in home qualifiers is poor with their only victories since 2014 coming against minnows Liechtenstein and Andorra. They have been more impressive at home in recent games, seeing off Albania and Scotland in the Nations League and their draw against Slovenia suggests they can get something out of what should be a comparable test.
In their last 28 Premiership matches, Celtic FC have lost three times. The last time they lost, it was against Rangers. They are unbeaten in their last 10 home matches in Premiership, and have managed to keep clean sheets in 20 of their last 26 home league games. Celtic FC have led at HT/FT in nine of their last 11 home Premiership games and have scored at least two goals in nine of their 10 most recent home games in the Premiership. They take on a Rangers side that is winless in the last four matches, and without a clean sheet too. Rangers are unbeaten in eight Premiership matches, winning five of them and away from home they have one loss in 11 Premiership matches. Their recent win over Celtic was the first in 16 matches against their archrivals and the first time they managed to score against Celtic in four matches. Both sides have scored in just one of the last seven, with Celtic dominating affairs. This will be the 95th meeting between the two sides, with Celtic having managed 43 wins in the previous 94, and Rangers 32 wins.