H2H: Bulgaria vs. Czech Republic – Prediction (EURO Qualification

Preview and Teams Comparison.

Bulgaria’s chances of claiming a Euro 2020 qualification (ECQ) playoff berth look bleak. The hosts are winless in this ECQ campaign (D3, L4), losing all three ECQ fixtures to date vs teams drawn from the top two pots (GF 1, GA 12), scoring their solitary goal inside the first five minutes of play. Todor Nedelev remains Bulgaria’s last winning goalscorer in a competitive home match. His equaliser in March’s ECQ draw vs Montenegro also accounts for Bulgaria’s sole ECQ home point this year. Both goals arrived beyond the hour mark. Given Bulgaria’s porous defence, opposition teams have often relaxed after sealing the win. This is reflected by the fact that Bulgaria conceded just once inside the final 15 minutes across those defeats to the two top-seeded sides of ECQ Group A.

Three of Bulgaria’s four ECQ losses this campaign have seen them permit at least one individual opponent to net a brace or more. Following Celustka’s winner, the first scorer has now ended up on the losing side in three of the Czech Rep.’s last four ECQ games. Nine of the Czech Rep.’s last ten ECQ away games have featured an odd number of total goals.

With no ECQ away draw for Czech Republic since September 2011 (W7, L3), the visitors will be in no mood for ‘safety mode’. Spanning back to October 2014, the last four wins in that sequence saw the Czechs win one half with a clean sheet and by a margin of multiple goals. Czech defender Ondrej Celustka was the winning goalscorer vs Kosovo in midweek, netting his first competitive senior international goal. Anything other than a strong start from the visitors would be a surprise, especially as the Czech Rep. have scored first in eight of their last ten ECQ away games, yielding a 75% win rate after doing so (W6, L2).