Wales v Bosnia: Hosts likely to suffer serious setback

Vedad Ibisevic scored in three of Bosnia's last five away qualifiers

Bosnia's masterful away form indicates that Wales will suffer a damaging result against the World Cup participants...

Wales v Bosnia
Friday, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports 5

Match Odds: Wales 3.613/5, Bosnia 2.265/4, The Draw 3.45n/a

Though Wales haven't participated in the European Championship since 1976 and Bosnia have never been to the dance, both will have viewed the expansion of the finals from 16 teams to 24 as their invitation to get involved.

Wales are encouraged by possessing one of their finest ever generations of players - headlined by Aaron Ramsey and Gareth Bale - while Bosnia got their first taste of tournament football at World Cup 2014 after several near misses and were reasonably competitive.

The qualifying draw appeared favourable, with Belgium the only other team in Group B with recent tournament experience; however, neither made a forceful first impression.

Wales suffered the embarrassment of trailing the Andorra side ranked 203rd in the world, waiting until an 81st-minute Bale free-kick to assume the lead for the first time. Things went worse still for Bosnia, who somehow lost 1-2 at home to Cyprus - a nation who finished bottom of their tame World Cup qualifying group with five points from a possible 30.

The consequence is that Bosnia's need for victory is far greater as they bid to instantly cancel out the lead that Wales have opened over them, and handily enough they have a brilliant away record with which to inspire confidence.

Safet Susic's men are unbeaten in a mighty eight road trips, winning an even more impressive seven of those, a sequence which commenced with a 2-0 dismissal of Wales in Llanelli a little over two years ago. In World Cup preliminaries, they hammered Liechtenstein 8-1, thrashed Latvia 5-0, won 1-0 in Lithuania and toppled Slovakia 2-1, as well as drawing 0-0 in Greece.

The hosts have in fact failed in two prior attempts to defeat Bosnia and have endured more reverses in their last 11 home games (five) than triumphs. Most damagingly, they are without a massive ten players due to injury, including Ramsey, Joe Allen, James Collins and Sam Vokes.

Half With Most Goals

Every single one of Bosnia's five away World Cup 2014 qualifiers besides the 0-0 with Greece delivered more second-half strikes than first, and the same was true of three of Wales' final four at home in that process.

Recommended Bets
Best Bet - Back Bosnia to win @ 2.265/4
Back the second half to have more goals @ 2.265/4