World Cup qualifying predictions, betting odds and tips: Talented Norway can show their quality

Today's Offers

11

All offers

Exclusive new customer sign up offers

FREE BETS

FREE BETS

When to bet

Kick-offs from 2pm

Best bets

Norway and over 2.5 goals
1pt 17-20 Coral, Hills, Ladbrokes

Israel win to nil
1pt 21-20 Hills

Saturday's World Cup qualifying predictions

Norway have not competed at a World Cup since France 1998 but they are determined to return to the biggest stage and can pass the first hurdle by registering a high-scoring victory away to Moldova in qualifying.

The last few years, including the failure to qualify for Euro 2024, have been a disappointment for Norway, who are dealing with raised expectations.

In the era of Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard the Scandinavian nation would seem well-placed to compete, but they missed out on last summer's event after finishing well behind Spain and Scotland in their qualifying section.

However, the Norwegians demonstrated significant improvement towards the end of last year by finishing top of Nations League Group B3 and achieving promotion to the top tier for the first time.

Norway's autumn campaign concluded with dominant wins away to Slovenia (4-1) and at home to Kazakhstan (5-0) and their next challenge is to push for top spot in their World Cup qualifying group where they have been drawn alongside Moldova, Estonia, Israel and either Germany or Italy (depending on which side loses their Nations League quarter-final).

Stale Solbakken's outfit are the section's second seeds and will be looking for three points and an early goal-difference boost against fifth seeds Moldova, who they have beaten in each of the last four meetings.

Moldova were recently promoted from Nations League D, but their results included a 1-0 loss away to Malta and it is hard to see them posing major problems for Norway.

Israel must play the first two home games of their World Cup qualifying campaign in Debrecen, Hungary, but they should shrug aside the inconvenience by defeating Estonia at Nagyerdei Stadion.

Israel finished bottom of Nations League Group A2 but ended the campaign on a solid footing by drawing 0-0 away to France and winning 1-0 against Belgium in neutral Budapest.

Keeping clean sheets against such strong opposition was a commendable achievement and another shutout looks likely against Estonia, who failed to score in five of their six matches in Nations League Group C1.

Read more football predictions...

Wales vs Kazakhstan predictions, betting tips and odds: Welsh can maintain Bellamy bounce 

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post

Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.