Northern Ireland proved itself as a young and active (in the broadest sense of the word) team in last year's Nations League. As a result, the British footballers approached the current qualifying stage with unprecedented ambitions. Having drawn the familiar Luxembourg, as well as Germany and Slovakia, Michael O'Neill's team aimed for second place. Naturally, the main competitors were the Slovaks. Here the Northern Ireland team was let down by the calendar. Slovakia faced Germany at its weakest point and managed to defeat them. However, the resurgent Germans did not give any points to Northern Ireland. This led to the situation where, even exchanging wins with the Slovaks, the British team lost its chances for any position on the tournament table besides third, a round before the finish. Luxembourg approached the qualifying stage of the World Cup without any illusions. This team performed beautifully in the EURO 2024 qualifiers but subsequently returned to a mediocre level. Ahead of the final round of the group stage of qualification, the Luxembourgers had not won a single point, scoring only one goal in five matches. Bookmakers determined the home team as the favorites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 1.39 for their victory.

In the last two years, Northern Ireland and Luxembourg have faced each other three times. In the Nations League, the British team defeated the team from the dwarf country 2-0 at home and won away with the same score, but allowed victory to slip away in the final quarter of the match - ending 2-2. In the current qualifiers, Northern Ireland again conceded to Luxembourg away but confidently won this time - 3-1. Looking at the home match statistics in Belfast, Northern Ireland has won four of its last five matches, losing only to Germany.

Luxembourg lost all matches in the current qualifiers, which was a logical continuation of the failed Nations League, after which the team was relegated to League D. The lack of tournament motivation for the hosts should not lead them to play "lazily" in front of their home fans. Let's bet on a convincing victory for the hosts.