Football – Sweden – Superettan
Friday 8th August 2014 – Kickoff: 1820hrs
Next stop is the Swedish second tier as I focus on hosts Sirius taking on Degerfors at their Studenternas ground in friday night’s sole fixture in the Superettan.
Sirius currently occupy 6th place and a win tonight would see them move into fourth place above Ostersunds and just four points adrift of a promotion play-off spot. With just one defeat from their last eleven matches overall, Sirius are priced as favourites, yet their overall home record of 2-4-3 13/13 appears to be less conclusive.
Sirius are unbeaten in their last five on home turf and they’ve drawn three of these five matches with draws against Angelholm 0-0 and 2-2 draws with Ljungskile and Syrianska. They’ve also kept just one clean sheet in their last ten at home, with both teams scoring in 7 of their 9 home matches to date, so I sense there’s an opportunity here already.
In addition, forward Silva (11 goals) has been in fine goalscoring form and has been the first goalscorer on 5 occasions so far this season.
Visitors Degerfors sit in 12th place just one place and two points above the relegation play-off places, and they know they need to get something here tonight in order to prevent themselves from slipping into the relegation mire.
However, with just one win from their last five, this won’t be an easy task as they’ve lost three of these with defeats against Oster 0-2 at home, 1-3 away at Syrianska and a 1-2 home loss to Hammarby.
Their away record stands at 2-3-4 14/20 and are joint fourth in goalscoring on the road in the division. That said, they have the second worst defensive record away from home with only Landskrona (21 goals) conceding more goals than them on their travels.
Forward Ayaz (6 goals) looks to be Degerfors’ most likely anytime goalscorer here.
Both teams have shown they are capable of scoring and conceding goals in almost equal measure, so I reckon there’s some value in backing both teams to score here tonight – could perhaps be a 2-1 win for the hosts.
Pick: Both teams to score – Yes @ 1.67 bet365
