IRELAND face Luxembourg in their last friendly game before their World Cup qualifiers begin in September.
Heimir Hallgrimsson’s team come into the game on the back of a promising performance against Senegal in the Aviva Stadium.
Luxembourg narrowly lost to Slovenia 1-0 on Friday night and will be looking to get a win today before they play Northern Ireland in their opening World Cup qualifier.
Hallgrimsson has teased there may be changes from the side that faced Senegal as he sees it as an opportunity to “look at new faces.”
Killian Phillips is in the running to make his first start for Ireland after impressing off the bench in his debut against Senegal on Friday.
What time is kick-off?
Kick-off is at 7:45pm Irish time in the Stade de Luxembourg in Luxembourg city.
That will be 8:45pm local time.
What TV channel is Ireland vs Luxembourg on?
The match will be shown live on RTE Two, with coverage starting at 7:30pm.
The match will also be available to stream on the RTE player.
What are the odds?
Ireland are favourites going into the friendly with odds set at 21/20 for Ireland to win the match.
Luxembourg will be looking to record their second win against Ireland in their history but the odds don’t favour them at 10/3.
A draw in the game is set at 11/5.
There is a three way tie for the favourite to be first goalscorer, with Troy Parrott, Evan Ferguson and Sammie Szmodics all 6/1 to score first.
Unwanted History
There is a bit of recent history between the two sides who have faced each other seven times, Ireland winning all but one of their previous meetings.
That exception to the historic trend came as the sides competed in the same 2022 World Cup qualification group.
The sides faced off in an empty Aviva stadium during severe COVID restrictions in the second matchday of the World Cup qualifiers.
A late Gerson Rodrigues goal handed all three points to Luxembourg in a 1-0 win, stretching Stephen Kenny’s winless run as Ireland manager to 10 games.
The sides met again in the final match of the qualifiers with both sides out of qualification contention.
Ireland won 3-0 in Luxembourg with goals from Shane Duffy, Chiedozie Ogbene and Callum Robinson put Ireland ahead of Luxembourg in the group only on goal difference.
Recently Luxembourg seems to be a tough place to go for teams with a strong Sweden team losing 1-0 there in March and Northern Ireland drawing 2-2 in November.
Despite Luxembourg finishing rock bottom of their Nations League C group without a win, I certainly wouldn’t be ruling them out of this fixture.
