Red Star vs Arsenal: Preview and Predictions

Red Star held on to a 0-1 lead from the first half to take away a massive three-pointer from Germany and they are now in a solid position after opening two days of Europa League’s group phase.

Anything the Serbians do against the group’s favourites Arsenal will be regarded as a bonus since they will battle BATE and Koln for the second place in the Group H.

Red Star

The hosts could have easily had the perfect record and six points after two rounds, but they were unlucky to fail and double the lead on the opening day against BATE (ended in a 1-1 draw in Belgrade).

They are in a fantastic position after 12 rounds in their domestic campaign where Vladan Milojevic and his sided holds the very top of the standings being four points clear off their arch-rivals and last year’s champions Partizan Belgrade.

Arsenal

Even though Arsene Wenger rested his key players in Europa League, the Gunners had no troubles easing past both Koln and BATE to collect the maximum of six points from two games.

Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud lead Arsenal troops in Europa League and they have scored three of team’s seven goals so far.

As for their Premier League campaign, ambitions have been damaged with the last-gasp 2-1 defeat to Watford on Saturday at Vicarage Road Stadium.
Red Star vs Arsenal: Head to head

The lone meeting between the sides happened back in the third round of the 1978/79 edition of the UEFA Cup. Red Star eliminated Arsenal on a 2-1 aggregate, on the back of a 1-0 win at Belgrade before settling for a 1-1 draw in London.

Red Star vs Arsenal: Prediction

The gulf in quality should be notable, but we don’t expect Arsenal to have that easy of a job in front of Red Star’s fans on Thursday.

The Gunners are more than vulnerable at the back with their mixed lineup and we feel Red Star’s attacking line can bag at least one here.
Red Star vs Arsenal: Bets

The main betting option is Over 2.5 goals FT at 4/5.

Arsenal to win & BTTS is paid at 12/5.

Faroe Islands vs Latvia: Preview and Predictions

Faroe Islands are enjoying one of the best qualifying campaigns in their history as they collected eight points from eight opening matches.

They will have a nice opportunity to add more to their tally this Saturday when they host the rock-bottomed Latvia at Torsvollur.

Faroe Islands

The Danish manager Lars Christian Olsen can be thrilled with the job he has been doing with one of the smallest countries on the continent.

The hosts have shown some fantastic defensive displays throughout this qualifying term as they kept their net untouched in four of eight outings.

Faroe Islands will enter the game with Latvia on the back of a 1-0 victory over Andorra in the previous round (Gilli Sorensen’s goal at the half-hour mark).

Latvia

The story is completely different with the visitors who collected no more than three points in the group with the likes of Faroe Islands and Andorra.

Aleksandrs Starkovs took charge of the team midway through the qualification period, but he could not do much to end the negative run and prevent losses to Portugal, Estonia (friendly), Hungary and Switzerland.
Faroe Islands vs Latvia: Head to head

The Faroese squad took a shocking 0-2 victory in their first ever head to head meetings with Latvia at the start of the WC Qualifications in October last year.

Sonni Nattestad and Joan Edmundsson were on target in a phenomenal display from Faroe Islands at Stadions Skonto in Riga.
Faroe Islands vs Latvia: Prediction

The hosts will have a phenomenal opportunity to complete the historic campaign with yet another victory.

Latvia have had huge troubles finding the back of the net lately and we would not be surprised to see the Faroese team keeping the fifth clean sheet of the campaign.
Faroe Islands vs Latvia: Bets

The first pick is Faroe Islands to keep a clean sheet at the odds of 6/4

The alternative option would be Faroe Islands to win the match at 6/4

Armenia vs Poland: Preview and Predictions

Poland will have a nice opportunity to get millimeters away from securing the top spot in the qualifying group E on Thursday evening when they travel to Yerevan to take on Armenia in the penultimate round of the competition.
Armenia

The hosts failed to leave a significant mark in this qualifying term winning only six points in eight matches.

Arthur Petrosyan’s men have been very easy to break down lately as they conceded four goals on two occasions in last three matches (to Montenegro and Denmark).

The only good news ahead of the clash with the group leaders is Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s solid form as Man Utd’s winger bagged two goals in last four matches for the Red Devils (against Everton and CSKA Moscow).

Poland

Orly have dominated the group all up until the demolishing 4-0 defeat to Denmark at Telia Parken a month ago.

The victory over Kazakhstan in the previous match did fix the impression and atmosphere, but they will need to be super careful here if they want to avoid further complications.

Bayern Munich’s star Robert Lewandowski has been magnificent so far as he is the second top scorer in the entire qualifying campaign (behind Cristiano Ronaldo) with 12 goals in eight matches.
Armenia vs Poland: Head to head

Poland have won four of their six H2H encounters with Armenia over history, but they dropped points in the previous visit to Yerevan (1-0 for Armenia back in June 2007).

Orly struggled a lot to secure three points against Armenia in this term as they needed the 95th-minute goal from Lewandowski to seal the deal in October last year in Warsaw.
Armenia vs Poland: Prediction

The visitors are clear favourites, but we can honestly hardly see the value in the 1/5 odds given somewhat of a weaker form Poland showed last month.

Instead, we are backing Armenia not to lose by three or more goals here at the odds of 9/20.
Armenia vs Poland: Bets

The top bet is Armenia +2.5 handicap at the odds of 9/20

You can also try with the BTTS option at 11/8

Gabala vs Jagiellonia

Gabala didn't fulfill all their expectations previous season, however didn't disappoint a lot either - they finished the season as second placed side, having ten points less than champions from Qarabag and nine more than third placed Inter Baku, also playing in the domestic Cup's finale, which they lost to Qarabag convincingly 2:0 without threatening much.

They didn't have much chances in the title race, so the team will be starting their European journey from the second round here against Polish side Jagiellonia. During the preparation period, they played three more important friendly matches, losing out to Akhmat Grozny, Russian Premier League side 1:0, but also 2:0 to Ludogorets while the team won over Dutch side Utrecht last Saturday evening with narrow 1:0 result.

They actually did well last season to enter the Europa League group stage where they lost all six matches, to Anderlecht, Saint Etienne and Mainz and surely a target would be to get close to the group stage again.

Jagiellonia, on the other side, finished previous season at second position in Polish Ekstraklasa, having their best achievement so far in Ekstraklasa but didn't surprise a lot, since the club has a steady rise in previous few years, also ending at third position three seasons ago. They were actually in a battle for title till the last moments, staying just two points behind champions from Legia.

At the same time, they had better goal difference than Lech Poznan and Lechia Gdansk, ending at second place even though they were tied up with these three teams in points. During the pre-season friendly matches, they lost to AEK Larnaca at the start of preparations, but then won over Stilon Gorzow. In the first round of Europa League the team easily progressed over Dinamo Batumi, winning narrowly 1:0 in Georgia and showing some of attacking potential in second leg, winning it easily with 4:0 result. Central defender Marek Wasiluk (6/0 last season) is long term absentee.

Gabala knows that their chances stand with the home game (actually not being played on their own stadium, but still in their own country and much more familiar ambient) and I have no doubts that the hosts will try to attack here as much as possible. However, Jagiellonia should be slightly better side here and shouldn't be defending a lot. Both teams to score seems quite valuable pick in my eyes.
Bet: Over 2.5 goals & both teams to score @ 2.62

Reading vs Blackburn: Preview and Prediction

Reading vs Blackburn Match Preview 4th April 2017

Reading vs Blackburn Rovers
England – The Championship
Date: Tuesday, 4th April 2017
Kick off at 20:00 UK/ 21:00 CET
Venue: Madejski Stadium.

Jaap Stam can be thrilled with his team’s performances against the fellow promotional candidates in the last two rounds.

Reading picked up super important wins over Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United without conceding a single goal.

The Royals will thus come in the game with the relegation-threatened Blackburn Rovers in an excellent mood looking to maintain the fine shape.
Reading

Reading are now only a single point a3way from the third-placed Huddersfield, but more importantly – the team showed they have what it takes to see off the main rivals in the battle for the promotion.

The Royals are especially dominant on the home pitch where they have three wins and a draw (goalless with Newcastle United) in the last four games.
Blackburn Rovers

The RIversiders just can’t catch the breakthrough and escape the danger area.

The team led by Tony Mowbray had a very tough away fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion this weekend. The narrow 1-0 defeat was the first after four consecutive draws and seven games without a defeat.
Reading vs Blackburn Rovers: Head to head

Blackburn have historically been somewhat of a tough rival for Reading. The Royals have no more than two wins in 11 head to head meetings with the Rovers.

The match from the first part of the season has, however, seen Reading ending the negative trend after a 92nd minute winner from George Evans (it ended 2-3 at Ewood Park).
Reading vs Blackburn Rovers: Prediction

We can again expect a rock-solid defense from Reading. The visitors should also have the careful approach because a point from Madejski would be huge for Tony Mowbray and his men.

We don’t see a beauty or a goal fest. One or none goals will most likely make the difference on Tuesday evening.
Reading vs Blackburn Rovers: Bets Tips

    The number one bet will be BTTS – NO at 1.95
    Under 0.5 goals in the first half is priced up at 2.75

Nantes vs Metz

Nantes’ manager Rene Girard spoke about tightening up the defence to be competitive for the new season and in that respect Nantes have done very well, conceding just two goals so far. But football is about wins and from the opening three games the Canaries have lost two. This includes their last two matches against Monaco and Bordeaux. But they will feel confident at home to get going again against Metz.
Metz can’t be judged on the road yet, it’s too early but what is apparent is that at home this team won’t be easy to beat. The team are scoring goals too. They have played just one away game and lost to PSG 3-0.

Nantes vs Metz: Head to Head

Nine of the last 11 fixtures between these two clubs have ended in draws. That is a huge stat that can’t be ignored.
The last two meetings in Nantes in Ligue 1 have ended 0-0. From the four league games played this century between the clubs at Le Beaujoire, three of those have ended fewer than 3 goals.

Nantes vs Metz: Prediction

On the face of it this game could be a draw and we would all expect that to happen. But a win for Metz could see them shoot up into the top five, and they might just go all-out attack. This will leave spaces early and a match that has the potential to be forgettable could end up being more entertaining than we think. Remember Metz won’t always get the chance to be near the top of the table they need to take this opportunity. This doesn’t mean we think they can win but it does mean the game could have goals and some excitement.

Nantes vs Metz: Bet Tips

Over 2.5 goals to be scored at 29/20
Metz/Draw: Double chance at 21/20.

Rennes vs Caen

After losing their first game of the season to Nice, Rennes have really stabilized although the media won’t believe it unless they get a victory over Caen. The home team cruised past Nancy 2-0 and in their last match got a decent 1-1 draw at Montpellier. The good news for Rennes is that there are goals in this team.
Caen have got off to a much better start than expected with 2 wins from 3 but those two wins were both at home. They went down too easy to Lyon 2-0 in their one away game but Rennes on the face of it shouldn’t be as strong as Lyon and Caen will be aiming to set up their team for the counter. Everyone understands that the away team will be happy if they come away with a point.

Rennes vs Caen: Head-to-Head Stats

Rennes used to do well in this fixture but in the last 3 league meetings Caen have come out victorious which include winning 4-1 here in 2015. There is an 80% chance that we will see under 3 goals, a stat we can’t ignore.

Rennes vs Caen: Prediction

Caen will come to Rennes not to lose and so if they can perform this task they have a great chance to get something. We believe they can and we should be looking into the value of a Caen win on the handicap. Rennes are no pushovers especially at home but Caen have some recent history on their side and the chance to move up in Ligue 1. They will surely sweep the midfield with five players and play a frustrating holding game, making sure Rennes don’t achieve many chances.

Rennes vs Caen: Bet Tips

Caen to win with a +1 goal start at 4/5
Under 2.5 goals at 4/6