Wigan Athletic V Liverpool: International delight with the Corals…

Wigan Athletic V Liverpool

Monday, 8^th March – 20:00 (ESPN – English Premiership)

Matt’s Tip: Fernando Torres to Score Anytime – 2.10 Coral (LOST!)

Alternative: Yossi Benayoun to Score Anytime – 3/1 Coral (LOST!)

In what is a big game for both sides, for completely different reasons we must add, Wigan (6.00 SkyBet) play the part of hosts as they welcome Champions League chasing Liverpool (1.62 Bet365) to the DW Stadium for a clash which will be shown live in front of the ESPN cameras.

While we fancy Liverpool’s chances to win this fixture, we have avoided all temptations of betting on them due to their inconsistent nature and poor away stance. We have instead, however, gone for a more consistent Spaniard to bring home the bacon for us as we plump for Fernando Torres to deliver the points for Liverpool with his second goal in just his third appearance back from injury.

Torres now has two games under his belt with Liverpool since missing what seemed an eternity through injury. However, to bolster his match fitness and sharpness, Torres featured for the full second period in Spain’s 2-0 victory away in France. The Spaniard didn’t manage to get on the score sheet for his country but he’s been racking up the minutes and Wigan could be the ideal setting for him to really announce himself back onto the Premiership scene with a couple of well craved goals for Liverpool. A fully-fit Torres would tear this Wigan defence, lacking in any sort of pace or defensive know-how, to pieces, but a 100%, peaked Torres wouldn’t be anywhere near the 2.10 price quoted by Coral to score anytime in the game, either, so it works both ways.

Now, though, could be the ideal time to jump on the Spanish sensation as sooner or later he will come good for the Reds and I don’t see a defence more exposed and vulnerable to sheer blistering pace than that of Wigan’s. They don’t get tight when man-marking, they have very little defensive awareness and are clueless when it comes to tracking back. While Torres might not be 100% there in the fitness department, some smart thinking and keen off-the-ball movement would easily see him go close to bolstering his league tally of 13 for the season. That’s actually a lean goalscoring record for someone whose missed a large part of the season, so I honestly feel Torres is a snip to score on Monday in a game he will probably play for the full 90 minutes in unless Liverpool are over the hill and far away, which, if they are, would probably mean the blonde haired backstreet boys look-a-like has already scored… So kerching either way!

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Yossi Benayoun has also had his fair few troubles with injuries this season, which is a shame because he was shaping up as one of Liverpool’s stand outs players this season after some impressive displays in the early part of the season. The Israel International is also slowly regaining his full fitness but was on the score sheet for Israel in midweek in a 2-0 victory over Romania, so Benayoun could be in ideal nick to terrorise the Wigan defence as well.