Vitoria Guimaraes vs Gil Vicente
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Today’s free tip is in the Portuguese Liga 1 encounter between Vitoria Guimaraes and Gil Vicente.
Despite a derby humbling against Sporting Braga last time out, I expect Vitoria Guimaraes to bounce back tonight. They’re too good to be down for long, and I would not read much into their recent form, which has mostly consisted of facing complicated opponents. Vitoria Guimaraes are a good team, but not a top team in Portugal so such runs are quite possible when you’ve got Braga and Pacos de Ferreira away, not to mention Rio Ave at home!
Gil Vicente at home, though? They should smell blood here, Guimaraes. Well, either that or smell the stench of life without the UEFA Europa League next season, which is where they’re heading if they fall much further behind Pacos de Ferreira. I suppose their insurance policy is that Benfica will meet Braga in the Taca de Portugal final, meaning that the UEFA Europa League place from winning that competition should be passed to them, but Moreirense are playing well enough to catch Guimaraes at the moment so they need to sharpen up, and beating Gil Vicente at home should not be all that problematic.
The visitors look destined for the division below, basically. They had a really good segment to last season’s campaign but since then have been an absolute disaster, seldom keeping the ball, and even more rarely actually using it properly. See, when Belenenses opt to play without the ball, I know they do it because they’ve worked on the art of defending properly as a unit, and that they’ll be more effective in the final third when they do have the ball. I never get that impression from Gil Vicente though.
The question really should be about why Guimaraes shouldn’t beat Gil Vicente today. I mean, Henriques has his team playing some good football, and they’ve got some fantastic options in their squad. Quaresma is still a class act, for example, although undeniably selfish at times! Edwards is still a real handful, and nobody wants to face Estupinan whilst he’s in the form he’s been in throughout 2021. In typical Ecuadorian fashion, he’s built like a brick shithouse, and with such good support either side of him, opponents don’t know whether to sit on him or go out to the creators. Throw classy Andre Andre into the mixer, who is very good with his late runs into the box, and you’ve got a team that’s seldom far away from scoring. I won’t deny being disappointed by their decision to constantly opt for brawn over brains at the back, but their attacking capabilities are better than most outside the top four in Portugal – and Gil Vicente is not an exception.
The visitors are already onto manager number two of the season after Vitor Oliveira was axed in November, replaced by Ricardo Soares. Since then, absolutely nothing has changed; this team still attacks like Portimonense’s “B” team (i.e. lots of flair, not a lot of composure or awareness), and thus every goal conceded becomes somewhat telling. They don’t often get battered, Gil Vicente, but without any real goal threat, it’s not surprising that they’re losing most games. There’s no confidence in this team when going forward, and they’re in a division where most teams score at least once per game. It’s not hard to see why things are going wrong for Gil Vicente, is it?
It’s not like Gil Vicente can claim ignorance or misfortune, either. They had exactly the same problems last season but were bailed out by Bulgarian attacker Kraev, on loan from FC Midtjylland. He was always going to go back to Denmark (although later returned to Portugal to play for Famalicao) but still Gil Vicente did nothing to give themselves a chance of outscoring opponents. Because of this inability to prepare to deal with their weakest areas, it’s incredibly hard for me to feel sorry for Gil Vicente’s predicament. I think they’re going to get relegated, and I can’t say they’ll be missed for what little they’ve contributed this season. A trip to Guimaraes today should be yet another nail in the coffin lid, really.
For me, Guimaraes being priced at 19/20 to beat a team that they’re a lot better than is something that should always be considered worth backing.
Verdict: Vitoria Guimaraes to win at 19/20.
Sunday’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. For confidence ratings, you’ll need to go to the members section here.
Australian A-League:
Central Coast Mariners vs Perth Glory
Western United vs Brisbane Roar
Austrian Bundesliga:
Rapid Vienna vs Hartberg
Wolfsberger AC vs Swarovski Tirol
Sturm Graz vs Austria Vienna
St. Polten vs SCR Altach
SV Ried vs LASK
Belgian Cup:
RSC Anderlecht vs Racing Genk
Bulgarian A PFG:
CSKA Sofia vs Etar
Croatian Prva Liga:
Varazdin vs Dinamo Zagreb
Sibenik vs NK Osijek
Czechia Liga 1:
Bohemians 1905 vs Karvina
Zbrojovka Brno vs Baumit Jablonec
Mlada Boleslav vs Slavia Prague
Danish Superligaen:
SonderjyskE vs AC Horsens
Vejle vs Aalborg BK
OB vs Brondby
FC Copenhagen vs FC Midtjylland
English Premier League:
Southampton vs Brighton & Hove Albion
Leicester City vs Sheffield United
Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur
Manchester United vs West Ham United
Estonian Meistriliiga:
Flora Paide vs Trans Narva
Tammeka vs Flora Tallinn
Faroese Betrideildin:
HB Torshavn vs B36 Torshavn
EB/Streymur vs Vikingur Gota
IF vs TB
KI vs NSI Runavik
Finnish Suomen Cup:
RoPS vs HIFK
French Ligue 1:
Nimes Olympique vs Montpellier HSC
Dijon FCO vs Girondins de Bordeaux
Racing Club Lens vs Metz
Lorient vs OGC Nice
Stade Rennais vs Racing Club Strasbourg
AS Monaco vs Lille OSC
Paris Saint-Germain vs FC Nantes Atlantique
German Bundesliga:
Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs Arminia Bielefeld
RB Leipzig vs Eintracht Frankfurt
VfB Stuttgart vs TSG Hoffenheim
German Bundesliga 2:
Hannover 96 vs Wurzburger Kickers
Karlsruher SC vs Eintracht Braunschweig
Nurnberg vs VfL Osnabruck
Hungarian Liga 1:
Mezokovesd-Zsory vs Budafoki MTE
Ferencvaros vs Paksi SE
Puskas FC vs Fehervar
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Maccabi Petah Tikva vs Hapoel Be’er Sheva
Beitar Jerusalem vs Hapoel Kfar Saba
Bnei Yehuda Tel-Aviv vs Maccabi Haifa
Italian Serie A:
Bologna vs Sampdoria
Torino vs Internazionale
Parma vs AS Roma
Cagliari vs Juventus
AC Milan vs SSC Napoli
Lithuanian A Lyga:
Kauno Zalgiris vs Nevezis
Panevezys vs Dziugas Telsiai
Dutch Eredivisie:
VVV Venlo vs Fortuna Sittard
FC Utrecht vs Vitesse Arnhem
PSV Eindhoven vs Feyenoord Rotterdam
PEC Zwolle vs AFC Ajax Amsterdam
Portuguese Liga 1:
Moreirense vs Rio Ave
Vitoria Guimaraes vs Gil Vicente
FC Porto vs Pacos de Ferreira
Portuguese Liga 2:
Estoril vs Varzim
Academico Viseu vs SL Benfica II
Chaves vs FC Porto II
Romanian Liga:
Chindia Targoviste vs Astra Giurgiu
CFR Cluj vs Politehnica Iasi
Russian Premier League:
FK Ufa vs Rubin Kazan
Tambov vs FK Krasnodar
Lokomotiv Moscow vs PFC Sochi
Spanish Primera Liga:
Celta de Vigo vs Athletic Club
Granada vs Real Sociedad
Eibar vs Villarreal
Sevilla vs Real Betis Balompie
Swedish Svenska Cupen:
Djurgarden vs Ostersunds FK
Degerfors vs Vasteras SK
Swiss Super League:
FC Sion vs Servette
St. Gallen vs Young Boys Bern
Vaduz vs Lugano
Turkish Super Lig:
Ankaragucu vs Goztepe
BB Erzurumspor vs Trabzonspor
Gazisehir Gaziantep vs Denizlispor
Fenerbahce vs Genclerbirligi
Enjoy your free betting tips!