Nothing will be 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. Some of them fight tooth and nail with the country manager by refusing to release their star players. You can find numerous cases of players returning with injuries which significantly jeopardised the clubs’ chances within the league as well as other competitions. The ‘club vs country’ debate will be controversial.

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

The following factors can be considered :

Home Benefit from 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 don’t 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 can’t 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 hard to expect motivation when the games will be considered meaningless. Alternatively, do be mindful of :

simply click the next internet page Home team may be more motivated because they are playing for their country in front of their fans.

The game is more more 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.

Because of the live telecast, this really is the best opportunity particularly 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. If the country has been thrashed badly by their opponent in a previous game, there may be motivation to treat the game as a revenge fixture.

Do not expect key players to feature in these friendlies. Most clubs are reluctant to release their star players for anxiety about them returning injured or fatigued. So most players chosen are often the other stringers and they themselves might not go all out as a way to lessen risk of injury.

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

Most punters are only knowledgeable about the exact same few famous national teams. Countries which they hardly heard of will automatically be thought to be ‘not good’. On the other hand, as the results of these friendlies are unpredictable, the smart punter can spot enormous value in some underdogs, especially playing at Home.