TFT Issue 146!
FreeHowdy guys and girls!
Apologies for yesterday’s members tips. My previews were accurate but sometimes Finland throws up strange results and they don’t come much stranger than Jaro somehow winning 8-2 against RoPS! Still, it’s never nice to lose so apologies.
Featured game
Banga Gargzdai vs Qarabagh – away win at 10/11.
With a lot of difficult UEFA Europa League games today, this was the only one that really interested me.
First of all, let’s look at hosts Banga Gargzdai. The important thing to remember about this team is that they’re constantly changing the squad, season after season, so judging their results in the A Lyga last season can have little bearing on their results this season. Banga do have some good players in their squad – Zemlikas, Choruzijius, and Kulbis, for example. They’ve got arising youngsters in Rodkin and Usachev too but that’s part of the problem, really – a great portion of this team is very inexperienced and are still largely immature in a footballing sense. That inexperience and immaturity has really shown in their displays this season too, failing to impress since their opening day win against Siauliai. Indeed, they’ve failed to score in three out of their last five A Lyga home games, losing four of them and winning just once – against doomed Atlantas. Sporadically, the hosts can be a threat but I doubt we’ll see that in this game.
Qarabagh are a side that I really, really rate. Azeri football is definitely on the rise and it’s these guys who are leading the way. It’s not just this season, either – they’ve been really good for about three years now. They’ve dumped Rosenborg BK, FC Honka Espoo, Metalurg Skopje, and Wisla Krakow out during the last few years in the UEFA Europa League and each time it’s taken a heavyweight to knock them out with German giants Bv09 Borussia Dortmund doing the honours last year and Twente Enschede doing the job the year before. Qarabagh can really play attractive football when they wish to but they defend very well too. They’re a very efficient and experienced unit and with Georgian hitman Adamia having had a great campaign and other talented players like Nedzipi, Agolli, Rubins, and Ayhan in their ranks, I really fancy them to beat their inexperienced hosts today.
My sole concern about this bet is the fact that the A Lyga is mid-season whereas Qarabagh haven’t played a competitive game since May. Nonetheless, I genuinely believe that there’s more than enough ability in favour of the Azeri visitors to make it count today and odds of 10/11 on them winning this game really appeals to me as a result.
Verdict: Qarabagh to win at 10/11.