ISRAEL are drinking in last chance saloon in their World Cup prayers and need a win on Friday in Austria and hope Scotland slip up in Moldova.
Scotland's last gasp win against Israel last month looks to have condemned the Israelis to missing out on yet another tournament – they've only ever qualified for one…the 1970 World Cup.
They face an Austria team who cannot finish in the top two after a lamentable campaign, but still have the comfort of knowing they will be in the play-offs thanks to the Nations League route.
Not that anyone will fear them – it's a question of when, not if, manager Franco Foda will get the bullet and only 1,500 fans have bothered to buy tickets for the clash in Klagenfurt at the time of writing.
Israel are very hot and cold, but they can be poor travellers. Austria have already lost half of their eight games and it's just not clicked for them at all in this group.
The hosts should be building for the play-offs, but there is a real bad feeling about their national team just now and Israel's Austrian boss, Willi Ruttensteiner, will be praying for the Scots to choke in Chisinau.
How the bookies view it
Austria are odds-on favourites at 5/7 with SBK, but it would take a brave man to back them on current form.
Israel can be backed at 17/4 with bet365 and the draw is 16/5 with Unibet.
Recent head to heads
Israel battered the Austrians 5-2 at home in the reverse fixture as can be seen below, but Israel have never won on Austrian soil in four meetings.
Players to watch
Bayern Munich ace Marcel Sabitzer was the last player to net for Austria when he scored in the Faroe Islands in 2-0 win. He's 2/1 to score on Friday night.
Eran Zahavi is a fantastic player and the PSV Eindhoven striker needs no introduction to Scots having netted at Hampden. He has also scored 15 goals this season including seven for Israel in five matches. He's 5/2 with Unibet to score anytime and that's value.
Anything else catch the eye?
Austria have lost three of their last four games and cannot be trusted, especially not at odds-on. But Israel are flaky on the road and were crushed in Denmark and deservedly lost in Scotland too. The obvious call is a draw.
However, there should be goals at least. Israel have scored at least two goals in five of their last six games and there has been over 2.5 goals in Israel's last six games and that's attractively priced at 5/6 with SBK.
This World Cup match between Austria and Israel will be played on Nov 12, 2021 and kick off at 19:45. Check below for our tipsters best Austria vs Israel prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
