Football – Sweden – Superettan
Tuesday 3rd September 2013 – Kickoff: 1900hrs
It’s off to the Swedish Superettan again as I turn my attentions to Ljungskile who entertain fifth placed GAIS at their Skarsjovallen ground on Tuesday night with only one point and two positions separating the two clubs.
Ljungskile are currently lying in seventh place, however, they’ve hit a rich vein of form in recent weeks having won four of their last five Superettan matches which includes wins over Hammarby 1-0 away, third placed Falkenberg 3-1 at home and 4-1 over rock-bottom Brage while last Thursday night they beat Landskrona at their place 2-0. The defeat came away at Assyriska by a 0-1 margin, but the hosts have a pretty good home record at their Sodertalje Fotbollsarena so it’s no disgrace.
Back to Ljungskile’s home form and this season their home record stands at a decent 6-1-3 16/7 and with the exception of league leaders Orebro (4 goals conceded), they possess the best defensive record at home in the division. This includes five clean sheets while at the business end, Ljungskile’s leading goalscorers are midfielder Lindberg and forward Johannesson (both with 6 goals apiece) and may be worth considering as anytime goalscorers.
GAIS make the trip to Ljungskile on the back of a frustrating 1-1 draw at home with Orgryte last Thursday which they will definitely view as two points dropped rather than one point gained, however, Orgryte have improved of late with an unbeaten run of four matches going into this week’s round.
Back to GAIS though and their form has taken a dip in recent matches, registering just one league win in their last seven matches which was a 2-1 home win over Angelholm, and they’ve lost their last two away matches back-to-back at Degerfors 2-4 and Ostersunds 0-2 with an inconsistent overall away record of 4-2-4 17/19. GAIS also have the tendency to concede on their travels too as their last three away matches would confirm; 10 goals shipped in their last three is not a good sign when travelling to a side such as Ljungskile and their miserly defence.
On that last point, I believe Ljungskile can win this match if they limit GAIS to a blank or even just one goal as their defence is very susceptible at the moment. I’ll give the quarter ball in favour of the hosts at a price close to evens as I think there’s some value to be had with Ljungskile tonight who could nick this one 2-1.
Pick: Ljungskile AH-0.25 @ 1.93 Pinnacle
