Football – Sweden – Superettan
Thursday 29th August 2013 – Kickoff: 2000hrs
Fifth placed GAIS take on second from bottom club Orgryte at their Nya Gamla Ullevi ground on Thursday night with the hosts looking to close the gap on fourth placed Degerfors by taking all the points on offer here.
However, recent overall results have been mixed from GAIS’ point of view with defeats to Varberg, Degerfors and Ostersunds along with a draw with second placed Sundsvall and a 2-1 win over Angelholm. But when you drill down to their home performances, you’ll notice that GAIS have lost just once in their last seven matches which was an unexpected 0-1 loss to Varberg.
During this recent run at home though they’ve recorded wins over Hammarby and Assyriska both by 1-0 margins along with wins over Landskrona 3-0 and Angelholm as well as draws with top teams Orebro 1-1 and Sundsvall 3-3. Their overall home record stands at 5-2-3 15/11 and their key players are leading goalscorers Drugge and Johansson (9 goals apiece) and Mendes (4 goals).
Visitors Orgryte (who also play at the same ground as GAIS strangely enough) have registered just one win from their last nine matches despite turning around their home form. Most importantly though is the fact that they’ve scored in just one of their last seven matches having drawn a blank in six of them and this augers well for my pick tonight.
Orgryte’s forward Karlsson (6 goals) appears to be the visitors’ best hope in terms of breaking their goalscoring drought but if GAIS can keep him quiet, Orgryte could be in trouble and resign themselves to another defeat.
Looking at both team’s squads, GAIS definitely have the advantage over Orgryte here with superior attacking firepower at their disposal and this could well come out in the wash after the 90 minutes on Thursday night as I’m confident of backing GAIS to cover the -0.75 handicap. Could be a 2-0 win for the hosts.
Pick: GAIS AH-0.75 @ 1.79 Pinnacle
