Scotland's travel woe to continue tonight
Several employees at Betfair Football HQ are of the opinion that Scotland are great value to beat Northern Ireland in their Carling Nations Cup opener at [2.26] this evening, while Andy Gray fancies them to win the whole thing, however we're expecting them to disappoint at the Aviva Stadium.
Craig Levein's side did enjoy victory last time out - though how much can be read into a 3-0 romp past the Faroe Islands is debatable, even if the same opponents managed to hold Northern Ireland in Toftir in October, undermining a fantastic start to Euro 2012 qualifying for Nigel Worthington and co.
The primary reason for our doubts over Scotland's chances tonight is a perfectly valid one, as the Tartan Army have failed to score outside of Scotland in seven games since winning in Iceland back in September 2008 and during that run they have drawn once and lost on a whopping six occasions.
Whereas several of the defeats suffered in that period have been expected, such as the ones to Holland and Sweden, there have been a fair few shockers, such as the 4-0 thumping in Norway, 2-0 outclassing in Japan and - most notably in the context of this competition - a 3-0 no-show in Wales.
Scotland haven't found the net in any of their last four meetings with countries participating in this tournament and therefore the Northern Ireland clean sheet holds great appeal at [3.7]. They've shut Scotland out in three of their last four encounters, while the last 11 have had under 2.5 goals ([1.63]).
Northern Ireland might be lacking in quality, especially with one of their top performers Chris Brunt missing this match, but they continue to impress, recently triumphing in Slovenia and holding Italy and are unbeaten in four, results that see them 15 places better off than Scotland in 38th in the world rankings and very appetising at [3.75] to win.
Their last two clashes with other Home Nations finished goalless ([9.6]) yet before that they overcame England 1-0 ([10.0]) in 2005.
Northern Ireland v Scotland
Kick-off: 7.45pm
Live on Sky Sports 1
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Published: 9 Feb 2011
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