Belarus – Netherlands

Belarus hosts Netherlands at the Stadyen Dynama in Minsk in a game from Group C of the European qualifiers. We are going to speak about this fixture now.

We can’t say that Belarus’ performance since the beginning of the qualifying campaign is really impressive. At this moment the former Soviet country is 4th in the group with just 4 points win and a mediocre record of one win, one draw and four losses. But on a positive note, in their last two matches Belarus won four points, which speaks of an improvement.

Few days ago Belarus hosted Estonia in Minsk, but the game ended without a winner – 0-0. The hosts’ manager Mikhail Markhel tried some changes after the break, when he put Bakhar, Laptev and Lisakovich on the pitch. But it didn’t lead to a winning goal for his side.

Netherlands are the current leader in one of the most interesting groups in this qualifying campaign. The Dutch side have 12 points, which is as much as Germany and Northern Ireland have. Right now Ronald Koeman’s team is enjoying a run of three consecutive wins, including one against Germany away from home.

On Thursday Netherlands faced Northern Ireland in Rotterdam and achieved an important 3-1 win over the Brits. It was really dramatic, because Northern Ireland opened the score with a late goal from Josh Magennis in the 75th minute.

This put the visitors in a really good position to win the match, but in the last 10 minutes Koeman’s boys put their feet on the gas pedal and scored three times. Memphis Depay equalised, while Luuk de Jong put Netherlands ahead. The third goal for the hosts was scored by Memphis Depay again.

Although they had some problems against Northern Ireland few days ago, we consider Netherlands a big favourite to win the game against Belarus in Minsk. They have to, if they want to win the first place in the group.