MARK STINCHCOMBE (@markstinchcombe) picks out his best anytime goalscorer bets from matchday nine of the Belarus Premier League campaign, as well as one from the return of the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Energetik v Dinamo Brest| Saturday 16th May 2020, 13:00
Energetik picked up a deserved and impressive 2-1 win at Slutsk last weekend to maintain 4th position in a league where just one point separates the top five. Reigning champions Dinamo Brest come next in 6th having beaten Dinamo Minsk by the same scoreline. This is 4th v 6th and features the leagues joint-top scorer who’s started the season on fire.
Twenty-two-year-old Jasurbek Yaxshiboev joined Energetik in the off season having never really done anything in his native Uzbekistan with just three goals in only 17 starts across four seasons. But after announcing himself with a brace on his debut against BATE Borisov he’s since bagged four more and sits with six in eight games, including three penalties.
Energetik are hovering around the 3/1 mark but if they’ve got any chance of winning it’s likely to come to from the league’s top marksman having already scored 60% of their goals.
11/4 (Betfair) on Yaxshiboev to score looks very nice in-comparison to the 3/1 they are to win the match.
RB Leipzig v Freiburg | Saturday 16th May 2020, 14:30 | BT Sport
The Bundesliga is back this weekend but how will things be affected playing behind closed doors? My feeling is home supremacy will be eroded somewhat but by how much is impossible to put a figure on given the lack of historical data there is for games of this type.
RB Leipzig are enjoying a great season under Julian Nagelsmann’s sitting 3rd and in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Freiburg are also enjoying a great season and are currently riding high in 8th and even won the reverse fixture 2-1 so shouldn’t be completely underestimated as big as 9/1.
The player I like here is Luca Waldschmidt at 5/1 (Betfair). A unit bigger than his strike partner Nils Petersen and he’s on penalties. He doesn’t always start but has 14 goals in 25 starts over the course of the last two seasons. Six of those goals have come from the penalty spot though which makes his record look better than it is.
However, he’s already scored against Dortmund this season and scored against Leipzig last season and gets off over three shots per 90 mins, two within the penalty area. Clearly Freiburg have a penchant for penalties having been given 12 since the beginning of last season and remember the referee will not be influenced by a home crowd here.
BATE Borisov v Slutsk | Saturday 16th May 2020, 17:00
Umar Mohammed Bala gave us a winner at 5/1 last weekend and at 8/1 (Betfair) can do the same again here as 1st take on 2nd. It’s now four goals in six starts for the attacking midfielder from Nigeria.
BATE Borisov have quickly established themselves at the top of the table having finished 2nd last season. There’s definitely some vulnerability about them though having shipped three last weekend at second-from-bottom Smolevichy, needing two goals in the final 10 minutes to claim a 5-3 victory.
This season BATE have already lost as 4/9 and 2/9 favourites and Slutsk have the reputation to upset having already won at Dinamo Minsk (4/1), Shakhtyor (13/2) and Isloch (7/2).
Dinamo Minsk v Isloch | Sunday 17th May 2020, 15:00
Dinamo Minsk lost again last weekend meaning they’ve lost eight of their last 12 matches and I really want to be against them at odds-on and I like the look of being with 7/2 Isloch in some form. They’ve already been odds-on three times this season and were only slightly bigger away to last season’s champions in Brest who are clearly a level above Minsk.
Dmitri Komarovskiy gets the nod again at a tasty looking 15/4 (Betway). He didn’t score last weekend but he’s scored in eight of his last 16 matches (50%) and has 16 goals in his last 32 games.
Momo Yansane scored last weekend meaning he has 12 goals in his last 25 games so it’s a difficult decision between the two. However, Yansane is slightly shorter, Komarovskiy is on pens and only four of Yansane’s 15 league goals for Isloch have come away from home (27%).
Best Bets
Energetik v Dinamo Brest – Jasurbek Yaxshiboev to score at anytime (11/4 Betfair)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg – Luca Waldschmidt to score at anytime (5/1 Betfair)
BATE Borisov v Slutsk – Umar Mohammed Bala to score at anytime (8/1 Betfair)
Dinamo Minsk v Isloch – Dmitri Komarovskiy to score at anytime (15/4 Betway)
