Cyprus vs Serbia prediction 25.03.2024

• Competition: Friendly International
• Date: Monday, 25th March 2024
• Kickoff: 17:00 UTC / 18:00 CET
• Venue: AEK Arena (Larnaca)

Cyprus and Serbia will go head to head at the AEK Arena in Larnaca, Cyprus, on Monday afternoon.

Cyprus are 125^th in the FIFA World Ranking and 46^th out of 55 European teams. They are one of the weaker teams in Europe, and they have never appeared in any major tournament, and that will surely not change any time soon. In the previous EURO Qualifiers, they expectedly finished as the last team in the group with zero points in eight rounds. They were also terrible in the UEFA Nations League C, finishing as the last-placed team in the group with Greece, Kosovo, and Northern Ireland.

Serbia are one of the teams that constantly underachieve. They had a good squad but have failed to qualify for Euro on the previous five occasions. For EURO 2024, they managed to qualify as a 2^nd-placed team in a pretty weak group and were far from impressive. In the last WC, the popular Eagles again disappointed, finishing as the last-placed team in the group with Brazil, Switzerland, and Cameroon while winning just one point.

Cyprus vs Serbia pick: Over 2.5 goals

Cyprus displayed a dismal defensive performance in the last EURO Qualifiers, conceding 28 goals in eight matches, equating to 3.5 per game. Therefore, it seems highly probable that they will allow Serbia to score at least two or three goals. Conversely, despite their previous offensive struggles, Cyprus has shown improvement in their recent games, managing to score a goal per game in their last three matches. They even managed to score against Spain, which leads us to believe that they can potentially score against Serbia, whose defensive performance under coach Dragan Stojkovic has been poor.

In the past two years, Serbia has primarily participated in high-scoring matches. Their offensive capabilities have consistently proved strong, often scoring multiple goals against teams superior to Cyprus. However, their defense has been a significant issue for some time, making the prospect of a clean sheet highly unlikely. In their last nine matches, they conceded 16 goals and failed to keep a clean sheet. Their strong offense coupled with their weak defense led to Serbia scoring over 2.5 goals in seven of the nine games.

Objectively, Serbia is a superior team, but we lack confidence in their defense. We believe betting on over 2.5 goals is a better choice compared to a -1.5 or -2 Asian Handicap bet.