Football – Norway – Tippeligaen
Friday 1st August 2014 – Kickoff: 1900hrs
Lillestrom will be looking to maintain their current strong form at home tonight when they host lowly Brann at their Arasen Stadion.
The hosts have lost just once in their last six on home turf with recent wins over Sogndal 2-0, Stabaek 5-1 and most notably, a 3-0 win over second placed Stromsgodset before the season break.
Lillestrom’s overall home record stands at 4-2-2 15/5 and they’ve kept four clean sheets to date along with failing to score themselves just once in their last five home matches. It’s also worth noting that they have the best defensive record at home in the Tippeligaen going into tonight’s encounter with Brann.
Onto the visitors then, and as mentioned, Brann currently find themselves second from bottom in the division just one place and two points above bottom club Sandnes. With just three wins under their belts so far this season, Brann appear to have their work cut out if they’re to avoid the drop into the Nordic Bet Ligaen as they’re already 5 points adrift of Haugesund who occupy the safety position of 13th place.
Brann are certainly in a tight spot right now as they’ve won just once in their last nine league matches, that being a 2-0 win away at Viking, but they suffered a 0-1 home loss to the same opponents last time out so they go into tonight’s away match on the back of a disappointing defeat.
Their overall away record stands at 2-3-4 11/17 and they’ve produced mixed results on the road of late with two wins, two defeats and a draw, but they’ve managed just two clean sheets out of their last eleven away matches which gives Lillestrom the edge here I feel.
Lillestrom have improved at home while Brann are on a rough patch of form at the moment so I’ll back the hosts to take the points in this one by perhaps a 2-1 scoreline.
Pick: Lillestrom straight win @ 1.76 Pinnacle
