FC Schaffhausen vs Lugano
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Today’s secondary featured game is the Challenge League game between Schaffhausen and Lugano.
Atypical mid-table dwellers Schaffhausen are notorious for their defensive style of football and any side that comes to the Breite has to be wary of that or they’ll suffer. The hosts have only lost a handful of home games in the Challenge League so far this season and that’s entirely down to their mean defence. However, with that stout defending tends to come poor attacking and the fact is that only Valente scores goals for the hosts. You’ll occasionally see striker partner Rossini bag or even Georgian midfielder Ivanishvili bag to support the cause but they’re not a strong attacking side and I wouldn’t mind betting that Schaffhausen will “park the bus” against Lugano today as they have to play to their strengths in this game. They’ve got a fairly mixed record at home against Lugano but ultimately, they tend to be undone by one of the best sides in the league and I think they may be today. Admittedly, Schaffhausen do bring good momentum into this game following back-to-back wins and that must be taken into consideration, irrespective of the fact that they’ve played two very poor sides. I would pay attention to the fact that Locarno scored at Schaffhausen last match, however, because it means Schaffhausen have conceded in all three home games since returning from the winter break and have lost half of their home games this season during that time so you can see the correlation here. Schaffhausen even lost at home to newly-promoted Delemont so I can see gaps appearing in their defence as the season goes on, hence the selection today.
Lugano are simply one of the best sides in the Challenge League. Truth be told, they’ve been in the Challenge League for far too long now – they should have been promoted to the Super League ages ago. Lugano stand a good chance of being promoted this year as they’re just two points behind Liechtenstein-based Vaduz with a game in hand. Only one side is automatically promoted from the Challenge League to the Super League whilst the second-placed side has to play in a play-off so you can rest assured that Lugano will want to push ahead of Vaduz before the end of the season, especially with the two sides not having to play each other again this season. Lugano have already won eight out of ten Challenge League away games this season because they boast the best defence in the division whilst averaging scoring over two goals scored per away game. They’ve won seven consecutive games since returning from the winter break, including wins against title rivals Vaduz and high-flying Servette last match, which was away from home. Therefore, morale is very high in the Lugano camp and they bring terrific momentum into this game. Senger and Alfonso have been unstoppable in attack this season and with Basic, Campanholi, and Fejzulahi supporting them from midfield, it’s hard to look past how strong Lugano are in attack and thus Schaffhausen have a long game ahead of them.
The bad news for Lugano pre-match was that new Brazilian defender Rafael Silva broke his leg and will miss the rest of the season. However, Lugano are in such a rich vein of form that I have to take them seriously here. Schaffhausen may be able to keep them out for the most of the game but I doubt they’ll be able to do it for all of the game. If Lugano score here then I expect them to win and thus I view odds of 3/4 on the away win as the odds on Lugano scoring, which in my eyes are rather generous. Therefore, my call is a Lugano win here.
Team news – Lugano miss Rafael Silva.
Verdict: Lugano to win at 3/4.
Monday’s Picks
My tips:
As ever, below are my recommended value tips for today in no particular order:
AIK Solna vs Djurgarden – both teams to score at evens.
It’s derby day in Stockholm and it seems that the venue has been moved from Djurgarden’s ground to AIK’s but either way, I still rather like this tip.
AIK struggled massively last season due to off-the-pitch and on-the-pitch issues which have hopefully been resolved so that AIK can get back to their dreary football style. However, they can’t remain boring forever – they have one of the most exciting strikers in the Allsvenskan in Mohamed Bangura and it’ll be interesting to see how he links up with fellow Sierra Leone striker Teteh Bangura, who was only signed a few months ago. AIK’s attack could actually be quite exciting, for a change! Wouldn’t that be a story in itself?! However the bad news for AIK is that their already questionable midfield has suffered an untimely blow with the news that club legend Tjarnstrom will retire at the end of the season. They lost Dulee Johnson pre-season and this news doesn’t aid them in their quest to possess a competent midfield. The only bright bit of news regarding their midfield is exciting midfielder Kayongo-Mutumba as makes AIK a lot more creative. However, it cannot be overlooked that AIK do possess a rather large number of “ordinary” players nowadays, despite some talented individuals, and that means to me that they’ll struggle today.
Visitors Djurgarden sold Sharbel Touma pre-season but have kept the rest of their first-team entact so they look fairly well-placed to beat the drop again. Djurgarden are a side with high aspirations but with little execution and they tend to struggle to avoid relegation as a result. It’s a bit of an enigma, really, as their defence is susceptible and error-prone whilst their midfield is rather strong. They’ve got ex-Liverpool attacking midfielder Daniel Sjolund, talented Finnish winger Kasper Hamalainen, and yet another Finn in ex-Honka Espoo midfielder Perovuo so they do have a good amount of ability in their Finland-orientated midfield. Consider that they’ll be supporting Nigerian goal machine Igboananike and technically-able Youssef in attack and we potentially have a very potent Djurgarden team this season. Whether they achieve anything with such an unreliable defence or not, however, remains to be seen.
For me, the best way to approach this derby is to back both sides to score. Djurgarden have a good attack and midfield whereas AIK are rather susceptible in midfield. I have no doubts that the Bangura duo can score against Djurgarden’s defence but with the above in mind, I think taking both sides to score at evens is quite a generous price today.
Team news – Djurgarden miss Oremo.
Verdict: Both sides to score at evens.
Accumulator fodder:
Queens Park Rangers, Tampines Rovers.
Recommended bets:
Lugano and Queens Park Rangers at 2/1.
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!
Danish Superligaen:
Midtylland vs Lyngby (6) 2-1
English Championship:
Queens Park Rangers vs Sheffield United (8)
French Ligue 2:
Nantes vs Boulogne (7)
German Bundesliga 2:
FSV Frankfurt vs VfL Bochum (6)
Italian Serie B:
Frosinone vs Siena (6)
Dutch Eerste Divisie:
Go Ahead Eagles vs RBC Roosendaal (7)
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Lillestrom vs Brann Bergen (7) 2-1
Portuguese Liga Sagres:
CD Nacional de Madeira vs Pacos de Ferreira (5) 1-0
Russian Premier League:
Terek Grozny vs Tom’ Tomsk (7) 1-0
Singaporean S-League:
Woodlands Wellington vs Tampines Rovers (8) 0-2
Geylang United vs Tanjong Pagar (7) 2-0
Spanish Primera Liga:
Almeria vs Athletic Club de Bilbao (6) 1-1
Swedish Allsvenskan:
IFK Goteborg vs Orebro (5) 1-1
Elfsborg Boras vs BK Hacken Goteborg (7) 2-0
AIK Solna vs Djurgarden (5) 1-1
Swiss Challenge League:
Aarau vs Stade Nyonnais (6)
FC Schaffhausen vs Lugano (7)
Turkish Super Lig:
Antalyaspor vs Galatasaray (5) 1-0
Enjoy your free betting tips!