El Salvador will travel to Basseterre this weekend for the first leg of their World Cup qualifying second-round game against Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Both of these sides performed well in the group stage and this encounter will certainly be one to savour this weekend.
Match preview
Saint Kitts and Nevis finished top of Group F after winning three of the four games and losing just one.
The nation's victories included big scorelines against Guyana and the Bahamas.
However, Saint Kitts and Nevis come into this game on the back of a 2-0 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago, the two goals were the only goals conceded by Saint Kitts and Nevis during the group stage.
Back to full strength for this tie, Saint Kitts and Nevis will look to make use of their advantage and get the better of El Salvador in this one.
El Salvador also won their group and managed to pick up some memorable wins along the way, with their 7-0 win over the U.S. Virgin Islands being the pick of the bunch.
The country won the group with ten points to their name and just one goal conceded.
El Salvador come into this tie on the back of an impressive 3-0 win over Antigua and Barbuda, with Eriq Zavaleta, Tony Rugamas and Walmer Martinez all getting on the scoresheet.
Although they can shine against lesser opposition, it remains to be seen whether El Salvador can pick up good results against better teams.
- D
- L
- W
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- W
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- L
- L
- W
- D
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- W
Team News
St Kitts and Nevis boss Leonardo Neiva is expected to reinstate a number of key players in the side following the weakened side he fielded against Trinidad and Tobago.
Kalonji Clarke, Vinceroy Nelson and Malique Roberts could all make an appearance this weekend.
Rugamas and Martinez are expected to lead the line again for La Selecta this week and will be buoyed by their performances last time out.
Zavaleta could also start at the back for Hugo Perez's side.
Saint Kitts and Nevis possible starting lineup:
Samuel; Burley, Flemming, Leader, French; Maynard, Sawyers, Somersall, Wharton; Panayiotou, Liburd
El Salvador possible starting lineup:
Gonzalez; Zavaleta, Gomez, Dominguez, Larin; Ceren, Mayen, Monterrosa, Portillo; Martinez, Rugamas
We say: Saint Kitts and Nevis 0-1 El Salvador
This will be an interesting encounter between two reasonably matched sides, but we think El Salvador probably have the upper hand coming into this tie with the superior firepower. We are going for a narrow win for La Selecta.
Francis Buchanan
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 Saint Kitts and Nevis win with a probability of 43.11%. A win for El Salvador had a probability of 32.04% and a draw had a probability of 24.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Saint Kitts and Nevis win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.02%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.01%) and 2-0 (6.95%). The likeliest El Salvador win was 1-2 (7.58%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.69%). The actual scoreline of 0-4 was predicted with a 0.7% likelihood.
