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)

On Monday afternoon, Cyprus and Serbia will face off at the AEK Arena in Larnaca, Cyprus. 

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 have been absolutely terrible defensively in the previous EURO Qualifiers, as they allowed 28 goals in eight matches – 3.5 per game. So, allowing at least two or three against Serbia looks very likely. On the other hand, even though they were bad offensively, that wasn’t the case in recent games, as they scored one goal per game in the last three games. They even scored a goal against Spain, and we believe they could score vs Serbia, which have been terrible defensively under coach Dragan Stojkovic.

Serbia mostly played high-scoring games in the past two years. Their offense is never a problem, as they are capable of scoring a couple or more goals against much better teams than Cyprus. On the other hand, their defense has been a massive problem for a while now, and expecting a clean sheet is a completely unreal scenario. In the last nine games they allowed 16 goals and haven’t had a clean sheet in that period. Because of a good offense and really bad defensive performances, Serbia were over 2.5 goals in seven of those nine games.

Serbia are a much better team objectively, but we do not trust their defense. Instead, we think that an over 2.5 goals bet is a much better option than a -1.5 or -2 AH bet.