Heracles Almelo vs De Graafschap
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Today’s featured game is the Eredivisie encounter between Heracles Almelo and De Graafschap.
Heracles are a notoriously hard side to face in the Eredivisie on their own turf, mostly due to their artificial turf. They battle well with plenty of spirit and are rarely short on goalscorers. Plet is in the form of his life and with promising Swedish attacker Armenteros and Brazilian Everton alongside him, Heracles do have a recipe to cause mayhem. Their record so far this season doesn’t really reflect how good they can actually be, especially with the statistics of their home form. However, consider that they’ve hosted Ajax and Feyenoord in their first three home games and perhaps the record begins to make a little more sense. Bosz knows what he’s doing with Heracles and he’s proven that by keeping an experienced and reliable backline together. I’m a little concerned that their below-par start to the season may have hurt their confidence but quality-wise, and given the advantage of the pitch, you have to favour Heracles here.
De Graafschap are a decent defensive unit but they’re absolutely nothing as an attacking side. The likes of Popeon just aren’t good enough at this level and it may well be the end of De Graafschap in the Eredivisie if they don’t improve drastically. Consider that their defence can normally keep things respectable and then look at the hammerings they’ve taken on the road already this season, losing 4-0 at Feyenoord. Feyenoord are obviously better than Heracles; no questions asked. However, it’s the manner in which they lost the game that has to be of concern, looking like statues as Feyenoord’s youthful team romped home. De Graafschap have actually claimed a good 2-2 draw with FC Utrecht and a 1-1 draw with Excelsior Rotterdam already on the road this season but considering that Utrecht were missing most of the their squad due to injury and given the players they’d lost pre-season, it wasn’t a great surprise. The 1-1 draw at Excelsior – well, we all know how bad Excelsior are! Their home form is pretty bad too, suffering some humiliating defeats, even against a disjointed ADO Den Haag side. De Graafschap have a very hard game ahead of them tonight and with little quality to fall back on, I fear for them in this game.
To top it off, De Graafschap have a poor record at Heracles, failing to even score here since 2003. The scoreline was 2-0 last season and although Heracles’ defence can often jeopardise such scorelines nowadays, taking them with a -1 Asian Handicap against a side that they really should beat anyway at 4/5 looks a bit of a bargain to me.
Verdict: Heracles Almelo to beat the -1 Asian Handicap at 4/5.
Friday’s Picks
Accumulator fodder:
LASK Linz, Ludogorets, Heracles Almelo.
Recommended bets:
No multiples appeal to me today, sorry guys!
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!
Argentinian Primera Division:
Belgrano de Cordoba vs Argentinos Juniors (6) 1-0
Austrian Liga 1:
LASK Linz vs First Vienna (8) over 2.5 goals
Grodig vs Lustenau (5)
WAC/St.Andra vs SCR Altach (6) both sides to score
Austria Lustenau vs Hartberg (7)
St.Polten vs Blau-Weiss Linz (6)
Bulgarian A PFG:
Botev Vratsa vs Ludogorets (8) 0-2
Croatian Prva Liga:
Inter Zapresic vs Istra 1961 (5) 1-0
NK Zagreb vs Rijeka (6) 1-0
Ecuadorian Primera A:
LDU Loja vs Manta (6) 2-1
German Bundesliga:
Kaiserslautern vs VfB Stuttgart (5) 1-0
Hungarian Soproni Liga:
Gyori ETO FC vs Kecskemeti TE (7) 2-0
Irish Premier League:
Bohemians vs St.Patrick’s Athletic (4) 1-2, at least one red card in this game
Derry City vs Bray Wanderers (7) 2-1
UCD vs Dundalk (5) 1-1
Dutch Eredivisie:
Heracles Almelo vs De Graafschap (8) -1.5 handicap
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Lillestrom vs Rosenborg BK (6) 1-2
Polish Ekstraklasa:
LKS Lodz vs Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biala (5) 1-0
Lechia Gdansk vs GKS Belchatow (6) 1-0
Polish Liga 1:
Zawisza Bydgoszcz vs Wisla Plock (7)
Portuguese Liga Sagres:
Vitoria Setubal vs Rio Ave (7) 1-0
Romanian Liga:
Astra Ploiesti vs Sportul Studentesc (7) 2-0
Targu Mures vs Pandurii Targu Jiu (6) 2-1
Scottish Premier League:
Aberdeen vs Dunfermline Athletic (7) 1-0
Singaporean S-League:
Geylang United vs Hougang United (4) 1-1
Spanish Segunda Liga:
Villarreal II vs Gimnastic de Tarragona (5)
Swedish Allsvenskan:
Syrianska Sodertalje vs Djurgarden (6) 1-0
Swedish Superettan:
GIF Sundsvall vs Angelholm (6)
Turkish Super Lig:
Busaspor vs Genclerbirligi (7) 1-0
Ukrainian Premier League:
Dnipro Dnepropetrovsk vs Oleksandriya (5) 2-1
Welsh Premier League:
Port Talbot Town vs Neath Athletic (5) 1-1
Enjoy your free betting tips!