Australia vs Bangladesh Prediction & Betting Tips - World Cup

Prediction published on 15/11/2023, 19:35  by Devesh Jaganath in World Cup Predictions

The second round of the AFC World Cup qualifiers will get underway this week, with Australia taking on Bangladesh on Thursday evening. The hosts are the favourites to win Group I, which also features Lebanon and Palestine. Australia defied expectations at the last World Cup, qualifying in Group D behind France. They managed six points in their three group-stage games and ended two points above Tunisia and five ahead of Denmark. Argentina knocked them out 2-1 in the round of 16. Since then, though, the Socceroos have been on something of a rebuild mission. They claimed a 2-0 win over New Zealand last month, which snapped up a four-match winless run. During that time, the hosts lost three and drew one. Australia faced this opponent in this competition in 2015 and won both matches 5-0 and 4-0. Unsurprisingly, the hosts are the clear favourites in this one. 

Meanwhile, Bangladesh are one of the ranked outsiders heading into this competition. They are currently ranked 183rd in the world standings and 38th of 46 in the region. Nevertheless, the Red and Greens come into this tournament unbeaten in their last four matches. During that time, they drew three and won their most recent match. That also included a first-round victory over the Maldives 3-2 on aggregate with a 2-1 win on their home soil last month. Bangladesh also had an impressive run in the SAFF Championship, where they reached the semi-final but were beaten by Kuwait. Still, this represents a huge step up in the opponent's class, and the visitors will likely need an early goal to have any chance of pulling off an upset.