Cyprus will be hosting the small nation of Gibraltar on Sunday, for the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers. The two teams are sitting at the bottom of Group H, as they have both lost all 3 matches so far, but only one of them deserves to be that low. Cyprus are not that bad, but they played with the 3 best teams in the Group so far, and I expect them to grab some points in their upcoming matches.
Cyprus (0-3-0) are coming off a solid performance against Bosnia, even though they fell with 0-2 on the road. The Cypriots took advantage of Bosnia’s bad day and easily kept the match at the 0-0 until the 70th minute, but Edin Dzeko scored two personal goals at the 70th and 80th minute to give Bosnia all 3 points from that match. Cyprus have started their 2018 World Cup bid with 3 losses in 3 matches, they haven’t scored a single goal and have conceded 7. They were not very competitive in the first two matches though, a 3-0 home loss to Belgium and a 0-2 road loss against Greece. They were never any chances for them to challenge one of the two top spots that grant qualification, and they are looking for a decent run here, trying to finish above Estonia and Gibraltar. Since 2012, Cyprus have 2-7-3 at home when playing in Qualifiers.
On the other hand, Gibraltar (0-3-0) are by far the weakest team in Group H, possibly one of the weakest in all Groups. They only kep the clean sheet for 12 seconds in the match against Belgium, while they finished that match with a 6 goal loss. Belgium have 31 scoring chances in that match, and 2 shots on the crossbar. Of course they have lost the other two matches as well, a 4-1 loss to Greecem and a 0-4 loss to Estonia. They are known for their weak squad, having 18 losses in their last 21 matches. They can only record draws and wins in friendlies, and against weaker teams than them. They have a woeful record of 0-13-0 in their last 13 matches, they failed to score in 10 of them, while they conceded more than 4 goals in 12 of them. The level of soccer in the country is not good, and they are not among the weakest teams in Europe for no reason. I doubt that they can take anything from this match.