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Tag: Football

Tipster’s Picks: The Best Bets from Top Flight Action in Italy, Germany and Spain

Sports Betting Tips

Every week, our resident tipster will be picking his ultimate football betting tips for the weekend ahead. With few English Premier League matches on offer, he’s recommending one selection from each of the other three major leagues for you to follow! Empoli v Bologna (Italy Serie A) A two match losing streak for Empoli sees them teeter on the edge of the relegation zone where they currently sit one place and one point above Frosinone in the drop zone. In their third straight season in the top flight in Italy, its actually the first time that they’re really embroiled in the relegation dog fight, and whilst it appears that Salernitana will likely face the drop, only four points separate 13th placed Udinese and 19th place Sassuolo, and its really tight at the foot of the table. Empoli in fact looked down an out in mid January, but a run of six games without defeat in the league, include three victories, saw them climb back out, but recent defeats at home to Cagliari and away to AC Milan will have dented their confidence. Furthermore, they will be without the influential midfielder Jacopo Fazzini through suspension, and Ardian Ismajli (DF), Razvan Marin (MF) and Alberto Grassi (MF) will also likely be missing through injury. Bologna on the other hand have been having a truly terrific season, and the side that almost always finishes in midtable (9th, 13th, 12th, 12th 10th 15th, 15th, 14th in the 9 seasons since they were last promoted in 2015) are currently in fourth place occupying that last Champions League spot that they will be desperate to hold on to. Roma are hot on their tails, three points behind them, and with only ten games left to go, they’re in with a great chance of reaching Europe’s most prestigious club tournament. Prior to last weekend, Bologna were on a six match winning streak in the league, scoring sixteen goals in the process, but the visit of Inter Milan, who currently lead the league by sixteen points, was too much of an ask as they lost 0-1 in battling circumstances. Their top scorer, Joshua Zirkzee (FW) is out injured, but they still have firepower in the form of Riccardo Orsolini, who has nine goals this season and was the club’s top scorer last year with eleven. The price on Bologna looks a little big in this game; granted they lost their last game, but they fared well against tough opposition. Anything above a price of around 2.05 for the win should be a good bet for the away side here. ⚽️ Game Tip: Bologna -0.5 Heidenheim v Borussia Monchengladbach (Germany Bundesliga 1) In their first ever season in the top flight, Heidenheim, a town home to only 50,000 people, and a side who were in the fourth tier of German football only fifteen years ago, are looking solid as they sit in eleventh place, ten points clear of the relegation zone with nine games left to play. Their impressive unbeaten run between early December and mid February has certainly helping, during which they won four and drew four league matches, including a famous draw against Dortmund, but they may have put their foot off the gas in recent weeks, and host Monchengladbach on the back of two straight defeats. Four of their last five games have featured at least three goals in them, and that could increase this weekend with influential centre back Benedikt Gimber missing through suspension. Gladbach sit a point and place below their opponents and are currently on a three game unbeaten streak in the league, during which they’ve scored nine and conceded six. They’ll be pretty disappointed though following their midweek Germany Cup clash against lower league side Saarbrucken when they were leading 1-0 early on, but ultimately conceded at the death to see their hopes to making the semi finals dashed. Gladbach certainly love scoring; only the top five teams in the division have amassed more goals, but at the back, they have been rather shambolic, and only two teams in the division have conceded more goals. Maximilian Wober in defence will also be missing this weekend, so we can expect that backline to be even shakier at Heidenheim. We should certainly expect goals in this match up where Heidenheim, who should be fairly confident that they wont be dragged into a relegation fight, take on a side struggling in defence. If the betting odds on the over 2.75 is anything above 1.82 before kick off, it’s probably worth a bet. ⚽️ Game Tip: Over 2.75 GoalsRayo Vallecano v Real Betis (Spain La Liga) Rayo are teetering on the edge of the relegation zone where they currently sit just four points above eighteenth placed Cadiz. It’s well documented how bad a season Almeria are currently having at the foot of the table having not won a single game all season, but Rayo in fact have the second worst home record in the division after Almeria, and they’ve only garnered two more points in total than them. With just one win at home in thirteen, which came all the way back in September, they’ve also got the second worst home goals tally this season and have largely been relying on their away form to gain points all season. In all competitions, they have now gone ten games without winning, and have only drawn three of those, and to make matters worse for them, midfielder Alvaro Garcia also look set to miss out this weekend’s game through injury. Real Betis slipped into seventh place in La Liga with a 2-3 defeat to Villarreal last week in a match where they were leading twice. A red card to striker Luis Avila didn’t help their cause as it maintained a bit of a dampener that they’ve experiencing in recent weeks having been dumped out of the Europa Conference League against Dinamo Zagreb a few weeks ago. Nonetheless, they still have a great chance of qualifying for Europe

Weekend Roundup: Arsenal Climb Into Top Spot amid Liverpool, Man City Stalemate

Premier League

Manchester United 2-0 Everton Man Utd’s two match league losing streak was brought to an end thanks to two penalties against struggling Everton. It was a far from convincing performance; Everton actually had more shots on goal and the possession stats were even despite the fact Man Utd were at home. James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey both conceded penalties by taking down Alejandro Garnacho in the first half, and Bruno Fernandez and Marcus Rashford dispatched the spot kicks. AFC Bournemouth 2-2 Sheffield United Sheffield United were minutes away from picking up just their fourth victory of the season at Bournemouth; they took the lead in the first half courtesy of Gus Hamer, and doubled their lead in the second half thanks to defender Jack Robinson with just under half an hour to go. But Bournemouth, who need only a few more wins this season to guarantee safety, fought back with two goals from substitutes, firstly Dango Ouattara with fifteen minutes to go, and then through Enes Unal in stoppage time. Sheffield United remain ten points from safety at the foot of the table. Crystal Palace 1-1 Luton Fourteenth placed Crystal Palace took an early lead against struggling Luton Town via Jean Philippe Mateta in the 11th minute after a defensive error, and they continued to dominate the match, notching up a total of 21 shots on goal. But their wayward finishing, a problem they’ve had all season long, meant they failed to capitalize on their domination, and it went from bad to worse when substitute Cauley Woodrow headed in an Andros Townsend cross in the 96th minute to rescue an unlikely point. Wolves 2-1 Fulham Wolves bounced back from a disappointing 0-3 defeat at Newcastle last week to pick up all three points against an in-form Fulham side who dominated the goalless first half but couldn’t find a way to score. Wolves picked up two first half injuries to make matters worse, but came out a different team in the second half. Rayan Ait Nouri opened the scoring in the 52nd minute before a huge deflected goal from a Nelson Semedo shot doubled their lead. Alex Iwobi netted for Fulham with virtually the last kick of the game. Arsenal 2-1 Brentford Arsenal managed to get past a stubborn Brentford side to move to the top of the Premier League table. Declan Rice netted on 19 minutes with a strong header, and although Arsenal dominated the first period, a huge error by goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale saw Brentford equalize on the stroke of half time. Arsenal huffed and puffed in the second half, and although Ramsdale did redeem himself with two outstanding stops, Arsenal did finally manage to break through with five minutes to go via Kai Havertz. Aston Villa 0-4 Tottenham It was a weekend to forget for Aston Villa who lost at home for only the third time this season in the league. Following a dull and goalless first half with very few shots on target from either side, Tottenham the screw on a tired looking Aston Villa who played in Europe in midweek. James Maddison and Brennan Johnson scored within three minutes of each other early in the second half, and Aston Villa’s chances of a comeback were ended with John McGinn’s straight red card on 65minutes. Heung Min Son and Timo Werner both scored in stoppage time to pile more misery on Villa and close the gap between the two sides to two points. Brighton 1-0 Nottingham Forest Brighton bounced back from a 0-4 defeat at Roma in the Europa League in midweek to pick up their first win in five games by overcoming struggling Nottingham Forest. A single first half goal thanks to an own goal by Andrew Omobamidele from a Pascal Gross free kick was enough to separate the sides, with both teams guilty of wasting chances. Brighton moved up into eighth, whilst Forest sit on the edge of safety, just three points above Luton Town. West Ham 2-2 Burnley Nineteenth place Burnley were minutes away from picking up only their fourth win of the season at West Ham, but ultimately had to settle for a point. Burnley were 2-0 up by half time thanks to an early Fofana goal and a forced Mavropanos own goal on the brink of half time. West Ham came out a different side in the second half, and within a minute, Lucas Paqueta had pulled a goal back. Substitute Danny Ings netted the winner a minute into stoppage time, a minute after he had a goal ruled out and a few minutes before he hit the woodwork as he came agonizingly close to winning it. Liverpool 1-1 Manchester City Despite their domination for the majority of the game, Liverpool were unable to bounce back to claim all three points from their closest rivals, as Alexis MacAllister’s second half penalty cancelled out a first half John Stone goal. Check here for a detailed match report. Chelsea 3-2 Newcastle United Chelsea managed to pick up maximum points at home with a solid performance that saw Cole Palmer claim an assist and a goal. It took all but six minutes for Chelsea to open the scoring with Nicolas Jackson flicking in a long range Palmer strike. Alexander Isak equalized for Newcastle with their first shot on target just before the half time break, but Palmer restored Chelsea’s lead with a thunderous strike on the hour mark before Mudryk added another twenty minutes later. Jacob Murphy netted for Newcastle as the match entered stoppage time but it was too little too late for the Magpies.