Given the quickfire nature of this qualifying campaign, I think that this fixture already has a must-win feel about it as far as Scotland are concerned. Therefore, Steve Clarke’s side will have to take a more front-footed approach against Belarus on Monday night, so a minimum of two match goals looks well within range. Ahead of Friday night’s 0-0 draw in Denmark, Scotland had scored in eight of their previous 10 matches across all competitions, with seven of those contests producing at least two match strikes.

While Belarus were well beaten by Greece on Friday night, they showed that they carry an attacking threat by grabbing a consolation goal with one of their four on-target efforts. In fact, the White Wings have now scored in six of their last seven matches, which suggests to me that Scotland may need multiple strikes if they are to take top honours in Hungary on Monday night.

Both of these sides recorded heavy victories in their most recent World Cup qualifying matches. Israel ran out 4-0 winners over Moldova, whilst Italy managed to slightly better that scoreline with a 5-0 thrashing of Estonia.

These sides met on two occasions in the group stages of the Nations League last year, with Italy running out 2-1 and 4-1 winners across the two matches. Italy registered a combined xG of 4.29 across those games, which would suggest that Gennaro Gattuso’s side could end up covering this line on their own.

Israel have scored 11 goals across their four group games so far (2.75 per game), winning three of those matches. This will be one of their tougher assignments in the group, and I don’t think they can rely on their defensive ability here with Italy having plenty of firepower in Moise Kean and Mateo Retegui to test their backline. 

This should result in quite an open game where Italy and Israel trade blows regularly in an end-to-end encounter, just as it was when these sides met in the latter stages of 2024.