PoPa Pori vs FC Lahti
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Just a quick note now that I am back from London – a big congratulations to Barcelona for one of the best UEFA Champions League Final displays I’ve ever witnessed and they thoroughly deserved their win. I struggle to name a better club side than them over the past few years so I take my hat off to them.
Today’s secondary featured game is the Ykkonen game between under-achieving PoPa Pori and promotion hopefuls FC Lahti. Neither of these two sides is operating at 100% capacity currently but FC Lahti have certainly started the brighter of the two sides.
Hosts PoPa Porti enter this encounter on the back of four defeats in four games, which is relegation form if I’ve ever seen it. PoPa Pori should be too good to be relegated to the Kakkonen but it’s form that counts and currently there isn’t a worse side in the Ykkonen than they are. I mean, you could argue that they’ve had a couple of tough fixtures, facing PK-35 Helsinki and AC Oulu, but they’ve also had games against ever-fearful-of-Kakkonen-football outfit Hameenlinna and a fairly average KPV Kokkola side so they’ve had their opportunities. They’ve conceded at least two goals in three out of their four defeats and I think we can partially attribute that to PoPa’s attempts to integrate Aijala into their defence. There’s no doubt whatsoever that the sale of hot prospect Juho Lehtonen to TPS Turku has massively damaged their offensive potential and with old hands Sumiala and Felipe Oliveira both still out, PoPa’s threat in front of goal is virtually zero. Dema and Fofana in midfield have good experience as they’ve both played Veikkausliiga football before so PoPa’s midfield isn’t a big issue at all. However, their defence is vulnerable, they’re not scoring goals, and their morale is rapidly declining and that most certainly is a problem. They’ve been forced to draft youngsters Mikael Liespuu and Patrik Lomski into their game today due to injuries and that’s certainly not ideal, especially with most of their defence absent against one of the top two sides in the Ykkonen.
Visitors FC Lahti enter this game on the back of a 3-0 defeat in the Suomen Cup Semi-Final against Veikkausliiga giants HJK Helsinki. It was far from an unexpected result and FC Lahti can consider themselves to have done well to even reach that stage of the tournament. Indeed, they overcame TPS Turku 2-0 and even came from three goals behind to beat JJK Jyvaskyla 4-3 in the earlier rounds so FC Lahti have certainly made their mark. Now their focus is solely upon returning to the Veikkausliiga – back where they belong. They lost their last Ykkonen game at 0-2 but I’d argue that AC Oulu are the only side capable of beating them if they show up. FC Lahti still have issues in attack with Rafael’s continued absence although the return of Kemppinen will certainly help them out in that department. Fortunately, Teemu Turunen has had a superb season so far and the attacking midfielder has bagged three goals in four games so FC Lahti have still looked dangerous despite their issues with injuries. FC Lahti are the better of these two sides today although I’m a tad apprehensive as I don’t know how back-to-back defeats will affect them.
However, I’m happy to take the plunge here as I firmly believe FC Lahti will score too many goals for injury-hit PoPa Pori to handle. I’d leave it if the odds drop below 8/10 as I don’t think there’d be value in this bet then. However, FC Lahti look good to win this one today against a leaky PoPa Pori defence, especially with their hosts struggling terribly to score goals right now.
Team news – PoPa Pori miss Vuorinen, Akbar, Viljanen, Pihlainen, Koivunen, and Aijala whilst having doubts over Fofana and Aalto.
Verdict: FC Lahti to win at 9/10.
Monday’s Picks
My tips:
As ever, below are my recommended value tips for today in no particular order:
No other singles interest me today guys – sorry!
Accumulator fodder:
Derry City, Tampines Rovers.
Recommended bets:
Derry City, Tampines Rovers, and FC Lahti at over evens.
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:
Atletico Lanus vs Atletico Huracan (7) 2-0
English Championship:
Reading vs Swansea City (6)
Finnish Veikkausliiga:
Haka Valeakoski vs RoPS Rovaniemi (6) 0-1
KuPS Kuopio vs FC Honka Espoo (6) 2-1
TPS Turku vs MyPa Anjalankoski (7) 1-0
Finnish Ykkonen:
PoPa Pori vs FC Lahti (7)
Icelandic Urvalsdeild:
FH Hafnarfjordur vs Stjarnan Gardabaer (6) 2-1
Fylkir Reykjavik vs Keflavik (6) 1-1
UMF Grindavik vs Thor Akureyi (6) 0-0
Irish Premier League:
Derry City vs Galway United (8) 2-0
Sligo Rovers vs Dundalk (6) 2-1
Drogheda United vs Bray Wanderers (6) 0-1
UCD vs St.Patrick’s Athletic (7) 0-1
Shamrock Rovers vs Bohemians (6) 2-1, at least one red card in this game
Norwegian Eliteserien:
Odd Grenland Skien vs Rosenborg BK (6) 0-1
Russian Premier League:
Amkar Perm’ vs Volga Nizhnyi Novgorod (6) 1-1
Singaporean S-League:
Tanjong Pagar vs Tampines Rovers (9) over 2.5 goals
Swedish Superettan:
Qviding Goteborg vs Brage (6)
Jonkopings Sodra vs Landskrona BoIS (5) over 2.5 goals
Enjoy your free betting tips!