Thursday’s Football Tips: Doubling Up in Dublin and Georgia

The World Cup qualifying picture will become clearer over the next few days as the group stages draw to an exciting finale with plenty of nations still in with a shout of making it to Qatar in 2022.

Portugal‘s trip to Dublin is crucial to their chances of securing an automatic qualification berth. They and Serbia have ran away with Group A but the Portuguese find themselve one point off the top of the table albeit with tonight's game in hand ahead of a showdown with the Serbs on Sunday.

A win against the Irish tonight will put Ronaldo and Co in pole position and in need of just a point on Sunday so there should be no thoughts of settling for anything other than a win at 1/3. Ireland have a really disappointing campaign but have found a little bit of form recently so will be keen to keep that momentum going.

Ronaldo, of course, will be the key man for the visitors and he's 8/11 (Bet365) to find the net or 13/5 to break the deadlock. The hitman scored twice when the sides met in the Algarve and he's 3/1 to bag a brace or more.

There's a similar picture in Group B where Sunday's clash between Spain and Sweden looks likely to determine who'll take top spot and their place at next year's finals. Spain trail the Scandanavians by two points so there's no room for error in Athens tonight. Greece still have an outside chance of securing second spot but it requires an unlikley win this evening and a win on Sunday coupled with a Spanish loss at the hands of Sweden.

Sweden should have an easier evening in Georgia who have lost their three home matches in the group so far. The Swede's solid defensive performances have seen concede just three in six and if they can keep the Georgians out then they should be good enough to get the goal(s) that'll see them claim three points ahead of the trip to Seville.

Germany have comfortably qualified from Group J and although there's likely to be an unfamiliar feel to their starting XI they could still rack up a big score at home to Liechtenstein. The minnows have concede four or more in six of their 10 matches this year.

Germany only won 2-0 when the nations met earlier in the group but they racked up 15 corners while enjoyng 85% possession. It should be a similar story tonight at the Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg. Bet365 price up Over 10.0 corners on the Asian Line at 7/10 but Skybet go 11/10 on 10 or more German corners which makes more appeal. If you're a bit more ambitious then 11+ corners for the home side pays 11/8 at Skybet.

Daily Double

• Portugal & Sweden to win 1/1 SBK

Upcoming Matches & Tips

• Football Bet of the day: Sweden & Romania to gain crucial victories
• Thursday's Goals Accumulator Tips: Today’s 9/2 Total Team Goals Acca
• Thu 17:00 Georgia v Sweden
• Thu 19:00 England U21 v Czech Republic U21
• Thu 19:45 Republic of Ireland v Portugal
• Thu 19:45 Slovakia v Slovenia
• Thu 19:45 Germany v Liechtenstein
• Thu 19:45 Romania v Iceland
• Thu 19:45 Greece v Spain
• Fri 17:00 Moldova v Scotland
• Fri 19:45 Northern Ireland v Lithuania
• Fri 19:45 Austria v Israel
• Fri 19:45 Italy v Switzerland
• Fri 19:45 Andorra v Poland
• Fri 19:45 Denmark v Faroe Islands

Golf Tips

We've got the AVIV Dubai Championship and the Houston Open to look forward to on the golfing front this week and of course The Caddy is all over each of the events for us with his tips for the weekend.

• Golf Tips: AVIV Dubai Championship Preview & Predictions
• Golf Tips: Houston Open Preview & Predictions

Today's Racing Tips

Rizzel thinks a 33/1 chance could outrun his odds at Sedgefield for Thursday's racing.

• Racing tips: Outsider of the bunch Scorpo can put up a fight at big odds

As always, let us know your tips and predictions for today in the comments section below and good luck with all your bets!

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