Northern Ireland v Hungary: Another home draw for the Irish

Northern Ireland v Hungary

Friday 29 March,

19:45 Live on Sky Sports

Baraclough has one eye on the future

Northern Ireland won the first of their friendly double header with a 3-1 win in Luxembourg. That extended their unbeaten run to three, following a win against Lithuania and a draw with Italy.

Ian Baraclough had put together quite a young squad for this set of fixtures, but he went with quite an experienced line-up on Friday. It did take two late goals from substitutes to get the job done on that occasion though, so it will be interesting to see how Baraclough changes his XI at Windsor Park.

One change that is expected is that Jonny Evans won't feature on Tuesday, and both Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Paddy McNair could come in.

Hungarians tuning up for big Nations League test

Hungary finished fourth behind England, Poland and Albania in their World Cup Qualifying Group, but it was extremely tight for the runners-up spot.

Marco Rossi's side will now be focusing on their Nations League Group, but given that they are in League A, they have a tough draw and will do well to avoid finishing bottom.

The Hungarians were also in action last week, losing 1-0 at home to Serbia. That wasn't exactly a great result, especially as they had beaten Poland last November. Expect some rotation in their team too.

Lack of goals enhances draw prospects

The hosts are unbeaten in four at Windsor Park - keeping clean sheets in all four. The only problem is that they only scored in one of those game themselves - a 1-0 victory over Lithuania.

As mentioned, the visitors had been in good form prior to that Serbia defeat, and they even managed a 1-1 draw at Wembley in October.

The draw is definitely my favoured option for this friendly, and it can be backed at around the 3.185/40 mark on the Betfair Exchange.

It's a result that has landed in three of Norn's last four on this ground, and six of their last 10 in the bigger picture.

I just don't have enough faith in the firepower of Baraclough's men to be tempted by the 2.68/5 on offer for them to win, and I am even less interested in the 3.1511/5 about the visitors.

No value in the goal markets

As usual with matches involving Northern Ireland, Under 2.5 Goals is the heavy favourite. It's trading at around 1.645/8 on the Exchange, with Over 2.5 at 2.47/5.

Hungary averaged just shy of two goals per match in their World Cup Qualifying campaign, but four of their 10 outings did come against Andorra and San Marino.

A total of four of their last seven have seen Under 2.5 backers collect, and as previously mentioned, Ireland's last four at home have only seen a solitary goal.

While I do believe that this will be a low-scoring affair, I don't want to back the Under at the current price, and I am not 100% sold on Under 1.5 at 2.68/5 either.

Bet Builder

I am happy to include Under 2.5 Goals as part of my Bet Builder though, especially when it is combined with Northern Ireland to Win or Draw - Double Chance. That adds up to odds of 1.910/11, but if we add in Josh Magennis to score any time, we get to 8.08177/25.

Magennis has now netted in each of his last three matches - two for Wigan and the Luxembourg one - so he is definitely in form.