Austria play host to the Faroe Islands on Sunday evening as they look to extend their unbeaten start to Group F.
Franco Foda's side opened their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 2-2 draw in Scotland, while the visitors earned a share of the spoils against Moldova.
Match preview
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On the back of their successful UEFA Nations League campaign, there was a confidence about Austria as they impressed against Scotland at Hampden Park.
However, despite twice taking the lead against the Tartan Army, the visitors had to make do with a point against one of their rivals for qualification.
Despite being left frustrated by his side's defensive efforts, Foda knows that have the perfect opportunity to make amends ahead of their showdown with Denmark next week.
Sasa Kalajdzic scored his first two international goals on Thursday night, suggesting that he could be the ideal replacement for Marko Arnautovic in the long term.
From the perspective of the Faroe Islands, they travel to Vienna having suffered just one defeat in their last six encounters.
While the level of opponent has been far lower than that of Austria, Hakan Ericson will be delighted with how this group of players are progressing under his guidance.
In each of their last three outings, Faroe Islands have come from behind to claim draws away at Latvia, Malta and Moldova.
However, in fixtures in Norway, Sweden and Denmark since November 2019, they have conceded a total of 11 goals without troubling the scoresheet.
When two nations last squared off in 2013, Austria cruised to a 3-0 win in a game which saw David Alaba score the second of his 14 international goals.
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Team News
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Having made just one change during the draw with Scotland, Foda will almost certainly bring some fresh faces into his Austria starting lineup.
Alessandro Schopf, Marcel Sabitzer and Michael Gregoritsch are all in contention to feature in the team, while Andreas Ulmer may feature at left-back if Alaba is rested.
The versatility of the players who could come into the team may lead to Foda switching from the 4-4-2 system which was used versus Scotland.
Heini Vatnsdal is in line to feature for the Faroe Islands after Odmar Faero sustained an injury against Moldova.
After coming off the substitutes' bench to score his team's equaliser, Meinhard Olsen could be recalled on the left flank.
Austria possible starting lineup:
Schlager; Lainer, Dragovic, Lienhart, Ulmer; Schopf, Grillitsch, Ilsanker, Schlager; Sabitzer; Gregoritsch
Faroe Islands possible starting lineup:
Nielsen; Rolantsson, Vatnsdal, Nattestad, Davidsen; S.Vatnhamar, Hansson, G.Vatnhamar, M.Olsen; K.Olsen; Edmundsson
We say: Austria 3-0 Faroe Islands
Despite the likelihood of changes being made for this game, we still expect Austria to come through with minimal fuss. Although the visitors will take confidence from Thursday's result, they do not possess the quality to trouble their in-form opponents.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Austria win with a probability of 66.99%. A draw had a probability of 23.7% and a win for Faroe Islands had a probability of 9.27%.
The most likely scoreline for an Austria win was 1-0 with a probability of 21.23%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (17.02%) and 3-0 (9.1%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 0-0 (13.25%), while for a Faroe Islands win it was 0-1 (5.54%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 3.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Austria would win this match.
