Football betting analyst Mark O’Haire returns to share his favourite fancies from the weekend with a pair of goal plays from the Netherlands and Turkey this weekend.
22:00 Everton vs Newcastle
30:00 Tottenham vs West Ham
38:10 Long-Shots
42:00 Best Bets@MarkOHaire and @adrianjclarke join @DanielHussey2 to share their best bets for tonight's ⚽https://t.co/dI5d4z8nx8 🎥https://t.co/6qhKWtxja6— Matchbook Betting Exchange (@TeamMatchbook) December 7, 2023
A much-changed Villarreal side were unable to make a breakthrough against Maccabi Haifa in their re-arranged Europa League clash on Wednesday evening despite a strong showing.
The likes of Ben Bereteon Diaz, Santi Comesana and Matteo Gabbia all came into the starting XI for Marcelinho with El Submarino Amarillo largely dominating.
The Castellon club are expecting to revert back to their best-starting side on Saturday when Real Sociedad arrive and I’m eager to support a goal-heavy game with Both Teams To Score of particular appeal at 1.8 quotes.
Villarreal have displayed obvious improvement since Marcelinho returned. A clinical effort dispatched Osasuna 3-1 in his first La Liga clash back at Estadio de la Ceramica and El Submarino Amarillo really could/should have beaten Sevilla last weekend.
The Sevilla match-up concluded 1-1, meaning Villarreal have now seen our nominated BTTS play bank in 13 of their 15 league dates this season – an 87% hit-rate.
All eight of their Estadio de la Ceramica contests have paid-out for Both Teams To Score backers, as have all eight of Villarreal’s encounters with top-eight opposition this term.
Real Sociedad arrive without suspended centre-half Robin Le Normand here, weakening the visitors’ rearguard. However, Imanol Alguacil’s group should still pack enough punch to cause Villarreal problems.
La Real have scored in all bar one of their seven away days thus far with the Basques also displaying a penchant for profitable BTTS pokes.
The San Sebastian side have posted Both Teams To Score profit in 10 of 15 La Liga matches, with five of their seven games as guests landing the BTTS bounty.
Six of their seven clashes with bottom-half teams have followed suit, whilst the two teams in action have combined to score in 27/30 (90%) La Liga outings, recording only six (20%) clean sheets between them.
Recommended Bet: BTTS Villarreal vs Real Sociedad – 1 unit @ 1.8
Clermont Foot exceeded all expectations and defied the underlying data to post a top-half Ligue 1 finish last season.
Still, Les Lanciers are in grave danger of dropping out of the French top-flight this season, with variance biting back hard.
CF63 (W2-D4-L8) enter the weekend second-from-bottom with comfortably the worst attack in the division, scoring only nine goals in those 14 fixtures.
Head coach Pascal Gastien – banned from the sidelines on Sunday – has also seen his impotent outfit suffer when facing-off against elite opposition, as they will this weekend against Lille.
Clermont have tabled W0-D1-L8 against Ligue 1 teams outside of the bottom-eight.
The point they did pick up came when miraculously managed to hold PSG to a 0-0 draw despite being utterly dominated at their Stade Gabriel-Montpied base.
If we look at Clermont’s Expected Goals (xG) figures when hosting top-six teams, we can see Les Lanciers have allowed more than 2.00 xG in all four fixtures, facing 43 shots in the box and 33 shots on-target – all from just a four-game sample.
So it’s easy to see why the market rates Lille as odds-on favourites here…
Lille is fourth, unbeaten since September, and boasts the division’s second-best defence.
During their recent eight-game unbeaten streak, Les Dogues have dispatched Lyon 2-0 away, held Marseille to a goalless draw at the Stade Velodrome, and held highly-rated Lens 1-1 in their own back yard. That sample also includes a 2-0 triumph at Le Havre.
Paulo Fonseca’s charges have scored in all eight of those aforementioned unbeaten encounters whilst also silencing six of their opposition.
I’m therefore happy to bolster the odds on offer for an away success to 2.50 by including Under 3.5 Goals; we’re effectively backing Lille to win by a 1-0, 2-0, 3-0 or 2-1 correct score on Sunday.
Collectively, 24 of Clermont and Lille’s 28 Ligue 1 matches this term have featured Under 3.5 Goals, with all seven of Lille’s previous victories seeing this wager collect, as have seven of Clermont’s eight losses in 2023/24.
Recommended Bet: Lille & Under 3.5 Clermont vs Lille – 1 unit @ 2.5
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