FH Hafnarfjordur vs Vikingur Gotu

12/07/2017

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Today’s free tip is in the UEFA Champions League derby between FH Hafnarfjordur of Iceland and Vikingur Gotu of the Faroe Islands. It’s hardly a secret that Icelandic football is better than Faroese football but I think that the gap has been closing in the past couple of years, and we should see an example of that tonight.

For starters, this is a good Vikingur Gotu side. A lot of Faroese clubs are ravaged by departures prior to their respective European campaigns so the team that did them proud in the Meistaradeildin isn’t the same as the one that competes in Europe, more often than not. That’s not the case with Vikingur Gotu, however. Because most of their better players are late twenties/early thirties, they haven’t been signed by clubs from Denmark. There’s no real structure within Faroese football for “bigger clubs” to poach players, either – there are a number of clubs on a very similar level nowadays, and I would struggle to tell you that one is definitively better than the other in the Faroe Islands. Subsequently, Vikingur Gotu enter this competition with a pretty good side, all things considered.

The visitors have faults, of course, and many of them were exposed by Kosovo’s Trepca ’89 in the last round, at least in the first leg. However, by the second leg, the islanders had become stronger and managed to hold their opponents at arm’s length with real ease. I can see them putting up a similar sort of fight tonight. They’ve got players that can really hurt the Icelandic heavyweights, too – players like Samuelsen and Vatnhamar have bags of experience at international level and are very dangerous attacking threats. Lawal isn’t as clinical as I’d like but he’s physically strong and fast so he’s a handful. Djordjevic is a very good creator in midfield for tonight’s visitors, too. Let’s not overlook the beast that is Benjaminsen, either – I honestly don’t see him ever stopping playing football. He loves playing too much, and he’s a very wise and composed individual that adds a great deal to Vikingur Gotu’s squad. With Gregersen, Hansen, Djurhuus, and Jacobsen holding things together at the back, I really do think that Vikingur Gotu can cause FH Hafnarfjordur a few headaches here, even if they are a bit on the slow side at the back.

I think it’s fair that FH Hafnarfjordur are favourites here. I mean, they’ve got a lot of experience of playing in Europe, and some very good players to boot, especially in defence. They’re not easily overcome at this level, and they’ll be a stern test for Vikingur Gotu, I am sure. Much like their opponents, they have a lot of experienced individuals in their squad, and they’re going to keep Vikingur Gotu very busy. However, cards on the table – I have seen better FH Hafnarfjordur teams than this. Domestically, I think they’ve been a bit poor this season, and I cannot help feeling that their European results will follow suit because they don’t have that bit of class for the tough times, you know? They used to have it in abundance with players like Sverrison or even Snorrason but nowadays I am not so convinced by the hosts.

I do think that FH Hafnarfjordur will find a way to win tonight’s game. They specialise in winning ugly, after all. However, against this Vikingur Gotu team, I would be really surprised if they managed to cause this tip to lose here because it’d involve some very unlikely things occurring. Therefore, my call is for Vikingur Gotu to win with a +2 Asian Handicap here.

Vikingur Gotu to win with with a +2 Asian Handicap at 22/25.

Wednesday’s Thoughts

As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts to prevent endless questions about my thoughts on certain games. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.