Slovakia’s last warm-up before the European Championships sees them play host to Wales on Sunday.
Final Tournament Preparations
After drawing with Gibraltar in midweek, questions are once again being asked of Welsh manager Robert Page.
Turn The Page
When you play an international friendly against what is considered as a minnow-level fodder, you can sometimes be on a hiding to nothing. The best example would be Scotland’s narrow win over Gibraltar at the start of the week.
Steve Clarke’s men toiling to a 2-0 win in Portugal’s Algarve but coming in for some criticism due to the level of opposition that the Tartan Army went up against. Detractors will ask themselves what was the point, the Scottish manager will argue that there was a considerable one.
For Clarke it was a case of trying new tactics and shapes, while more importantly getting a confidence boosting win under his belt before things get a lot more serious against European Championships hosts Germany next Friday.
Fast forward 72 hours and Wales took their turn to go up against Gibraltar and although Robert Page’s men are not booked to go to Germany, they certainly needed a confidence boosting win for themselves.
One that did not come and with the Gibraltarian national side not having won any of their 13 previous outings, a 0-0 draw against Wales is a result that was celebrated just as much as if they come out on top.
Then again, there were no celebrations in the Welsh camp and although manager Page could use a younger squad as mitigating circumstance, this is not the result that was expected after the disappointment of failing to qualify for Euro 2024.
Now though, it is out of frying pan and straight into the fire for the dragons of Wales and whereas they would want to be making their final pre-tournament preparations, they are instead helping Slovakia complete theirs.
Although Slovakia are not minnows in the strictest sense, they are minnows within the confines of this summer’s European Championships and with manager Francesco Calzona being kept busy as interim Napoli boss these past few months, his focus now returns to international matters in full.
Matters that will see the Italian look to mastermind safe passage to the Round of 16 and with only one of themselves, Romania and Ukraine guaranteed to go home early after Group E comes to its conclusion, additional tournament football is not outside the realm of possibility.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and after the damaging effect of their midweek draw with Gibraltar, I am backing Slovakia to do more damage to Wales. Therefore, I am backing the home win and under 2.5 goals at odds of 10/3.
In addition to this, I am going to lean into the first outcome for my second tip and with Wales looking incredibly blunt in their last outing, I am also going to back a 2-0 home win. An outcome that is currently priced at a tempting 17/2.
Bet £10, Get £50 in Free Bets
