Football – Finland – Ykkonen
Friday 11th July 2014 – Kickoff: 1730hrs
It’s a quick hop, step and a jump over to Finland next as I look at a fixture in the Finnish Ykkonen league with a bottom half clash featuring hosts AC Oulu and visitors JIPPO.
AC Oulu first, and the hosts will be glad to be returning to home turf in this evening’s fixture following back-to-back away defeats at IFK Helsinki 0-4 and league leaders Koo Tee Pee 1-2 as they look to climb away from the relegation places with a win tonight.
Oulu, currently third from bottom in the Ykkonen haven’t been helped recently with three away matches in their last five (where incidentally they’ve lost all three), but at home they’ve shown more promise with a recent win over Jazz 2-1 and shared a point with mid-table Haka in a 0-0 draw.
AC Oulu’s overall home form stands at 2-3-1 10/9 with their one defeat so far coming against third placed Ilves but it should be noted that they’ve held the likes of league leaders Koo Tee Pee and fourth placed IFK Helsinki to draws at their Raatin Stadion.
AC Oulu’s forward Stafsula (5 goals) looks to be their most likely anytime goalscorer, and he also takes their penalties as well, converting 2 so far this season.
Visitors JIPPO have produced mixed results of late with wins over bottom club Vikingit and second from bottom Jazz, a draw against PK-35 Vantaa and defeats to Koo Tee Pee 0-3 away and last Sunday’s 0-2 defeat at home to Ilves Tampere.
They are currently just one league position and one point above tonight’s hosts AC Oulu but their away form has been pretty dire up until last time out – JIPPO had suffered four defeats on the trot on their travels (all to nil I might add) with losses at Ilves 0-2, Helsinki 0-4, JJK 0-3 and Koo Tee Pee 0-3 with further embarrassment being saved by a 1-0 win at second from bottom club Jazz at the end of June.
Their overall away record though stands at a poor 1-1-4 1/12, and needless to say they’re the lowest goalscorers away from home in the division.
AC Oulu with home advantage will be looking to exploit JIPPO’s poor away form and they should take all three points here tonight to bounce back and pull away from the bottom two. Perhaps a 2-1 win for the hosts here.
Pick: AC Oulu straight win @ 1.83 bet365
