Nothing is at stake in international friendlies. These games are of some importance only when they are used as warm-ups in advance of crucial competitions like the World Cup.

Most club managers find these friendlies an utter nuisance. A lot of them fight tooth and nail with the country manager by refusing to release their star players. You will find numerous cases of players returning with injuries which significantly jeopardised the clubs’ chances in the league as well as other competitions. The ‘club vs country’ debate is definitely controversial.

The conventional wisdom is in order to avoid betting these friendlies since they are looked upon as meaningless. The final results tend to be unpredictable. But a savvy punter may find value in the uncertainties.

The next factors can be considered :

Home Good thing about Intimidating Venue

Countries like Azerbaijian and Kazakhstan, etc. are not the most comfortable places to visit. How do you expect the soccer superstars to enjoy :

Long flights (some countries do not have links for direct flight).

Less than hygienic living environment and food.

Strange customs (especially if the country is of a predominantly different religion).

Climate (it cannot be easy to travel long distances from freezing winter in Europe to play in a humid stadium in Turkey on a summer night).

It really is somewhat difficult to expect motivation in the event the games will be considered meaningless. On the contrary, do be mindful of :

The Home team may be more motivated because they are playing for their country in front of their fans.

The game is more very likely to be telecast live especially should the Home team is playing a highly ranked Away team like England. Thus the Home team will be super charged-up.

As a result of the live telecast, this is the best opportunity specifically for players from an ‘obscure’ country to showcase their talent, hoping to attract the attention of sports talent scouts of big European clubs.

The game is used to restore national pride. In the event the country has been thrashed badly by their opponent in a previous game, there can be motivation to treat the game as a revenge fixture.

Don’t expect key players to feature in these friendlies. Most clubs are reluctant to release their star players for fear of them returning injured or fatigued. So most players chosen are often your second stringers and they themselves may not go all out so that you can lessen risk of injury.

When most teams play cautiously, most of the time it’s going to be a dull match.

Most punters are only acquainted with simply click the following website page same few famous national teams. Countries which they hardly heard of will automatically be regarded as ‘not good’. On the flip side, as the end result of these friendlies are unpredictable, the smart punter can spot enormous value in some underdogs, especially playing at Home.