Football – Norway – Tippeligaen
Saturday 12th July 2014 – Kickoff: 1800hrs
The weekend brings us more action from the Norwegian top flight and my featured match centres around Lillestrom taking on Sarpsborg 08 at their Arasen Stadion on Saturday night.
Lillestrom have returned some mixed results of late with a draw against Valerenga and defeats to Rosenborg and Start but these three recent matches were all away from home, while their home form has been pretty strong so far in this campaign.
Despite a 1-2 defeat at home to Molde, Lillestrom bounced back and have won their last two on home turf with back-to-back wins over Stabaek 5-1 and second placed Stromsgodset 3-0. As mentioned, their home form has been strong and this is reflected in their overall home record of 4-1-2 15/5 and they’ve kept three clean sheets to date.
Digging a little deeper, and you’ll find that their record over bottom half teams at home stands at a solid 3-1-0 11/2.
Visitors Sarpsborg ended a run of six matches without a win last Sunday when they beat Bodo/Glimt 2-1 at home. In fact, Sarpsborg’s home form has been very good so far as they’ve remained unbeaten for their first seven matches. but on the road is a very different story.
Sarpsborg, along with bottom club Sandnes, have both yet to register an away win on their travels with Sarpsborg’s away record standing at 0-2-5 5/19 with goalscoring away from their Sarpsborg Stadion being the main culprit for their poor form.
In fact, the visitors have failed to hit the back of the net on three occasions so far and with Lillestrom’s solid defensive record at home, it looks likely they’ll hit another brick wall here tonight. Incidentally, their record away to top half opposition is even worse as it stands at 0-0-3 2/11 heading into tonight’s encounter.
Lillestrom are deservedly priced as favourites here but there’s still some value to be had backing them so I recommend a straight win for the hosts who may win this one perhaps 2-1.
Pick: Lillestrom straight win @ 1.83 Bet Victor
