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Northern Ireland will be at home at Windsor Park in Belfast on March 29th as they take on Slovenia in a Group C Euro 2012 qualifying match. Slovenia sits in second place in the group with seven points from two wins a draw and two losses.

Northern Ireland is in fifth place with five points from a win two draws and a loss. Italy leads the group with 13 points from five games. Serbia is in second with seven points from five matches, but is behind Slovenia on goal difference. Estonia is in fourth place with six points from four games and the Faroe Islands sit in last place with one point from five matches.

We bet for a draw in this game, find the best odds here.

Ireland lost ground on March 25th as they were beaten 2-1 away at Serbia in front of closed doors. Serbia was being punished for crowd trouble during an earlier game against Italy. The match was abandoned after just six minutes and Italy was handed a 3-0 default win. Slovenia was beaten 1-0 at home by Italy the same day.

This match is all the more important for Northern Ireland after the loss in Serbia as they need to win if they hope to keep pace with the top teams in the group. They need to have good games from everybody, especially Manchester United defender Jonny Evans as well as Chris Brunt.

Slovenia isn’t a bad team and is actually ranked at 17th by FIFA, which puts them ahead of France. The Northern Irish are currently sitting at 40th in the world. They’ve qualified for the European Championship just once before, back in 2000. Northern Ireland will be attempting to reach their first Euro finals ever.

The two teams have met each other three times over the past three years Slovenia winning one of them and Northern Ireland the other two. Northern Ireland has played well defensively in Euro 2012 qualifying matches by allowing just three goals, but their weak spot is goals coring.

Slovenia has won two out of their last qualifiers on the road while Northern Ireland has won five out of their previous seven at home. The first Euro 2012 qualifier between these two countries ended in a 1-0 away win for Northern Ireland back in September on a Corry Evans goal after being set up by Craig Cathcart.

Northern Ireland is winless in their last five games with three draws and two losses while Slovenia has three wins and two losses.

Bet on Northern Ireland – Slovenia

This is another game that could go either way, so let’s call this one a 1-1 draw.

Bodog has the odds of a Northern Ireland win at 2/1 with the odds of a Slovenian victory at 8/5. The odds of a draw are 19/10 and a 1-1 draw is at 11/2.