Date: October 12, 2014
Venue: LFF Stadium, Vilnius, Lithuania
Kick-off time: 19:45 BST
The Group E UEFA Euro 2016 Qualifier encounter between Lithuania and Slovenia starts at a time when the group is looking highly skewed. England are the runaway leaders while the contenders Switzerland are at the bottom. This leaves greater scope for Lithuania and Slovenia to push their stakes forward which makes this tie interesting.
Lithuania are keeping pace with England at the top of the group with two wins from the two opening games while Slovenia picked up surprise win against Switzerland to stay in third place.
Lithuania form: W-W-D-L-D
Lithuania started the qualifiers brightly with back-to-back wins against San Marino and Estonia. Having never qualified for a major international tournament, Lithuania would like to continue this form and occupy the qualifying slots.
In their previous two meeting, Lithuania overpowered Slovenia by the same margin 2-1. A win on Sunday against their visitors should strengthen their claims from the group – especially since Switzerland have started very badly.
Slovenia form: W-L-L-L-L
Like Lithuania, Slovenia also harbor hopes of sneaking through the group which is now looking more open for teams other than Switzerland. Though they started on a loss to Estonia, Slovenia bounced back to defeat Switzerland and get back on track.
Their coach Srecko Katanec believes that the fighting spirit shown against Switzerland should hold them in good stead for this match and the ones to come. If they can leave Lithuania with a point, it would be a huge boost to their ambitions.
Key Players
Lithuania: Deivydas Matulevicius
The forward has scored in the opening day win against San Marino while his assist was the game changer against Estonia. The home side will expect him to come good again
Slovenia: Samir Handanovic
The Inter Milan keeper was the reason for Slovenia’s victory over Switzerland and will be hard pressed to showcase his skills once more.
Betting Advice
The hosts could edge out their opponents in this one, and it has tempting odds for it as well – 3.4 with bet365. If you want to play it safe, there is always a drawn game at 3.2 (bet365), while less than 2.5 goals is at 1.61 (BetVictor).