Wednesday Bet Of The Day: Superlaget to shine

JACK Wright's (@JackWright_BSB) Bet of the Day continues on Wednesday as we return to Norway.

Kristiansund vs Bodø/Glimt | Wednesday 12^th May 2021, 17:00

With the sun shining through the windows and the thermometer reading starts to creep up it’s a welcome reminder that the summer leagues are getting up and running across Europe – one such league being the Norwegian Eliteserien which kicked off at the weekend.

A tough opener for Kristiansund saw them travel and lose to last season's runners up Molde – despite surviving a missed penalty in the opening exchanges they still found themselves two goals down just past the half hour mark – a deficit they never looked like recovering.

Bodø/Glimt absolutely cruised the league by 19 points last season, scoring in every game, racking up 103 goals in the process and amassing a mighty goal difference of +71.

With the departures of key personnel like scorer of 14 goals and assister of 10 in 18 top flight Norwegian games last term, 20-year-old winger Jens Petter Hauge to AC Milan, 27 goal top scorer Kasper Junker, now plying his trade in Japan with Urawa Reds and 26-year-old winger Philip Zinckernagel joining soon to be EPL club Watford on a free, there were concerns on how the Superlaget would go about their title defence.

Well, it was business as usual in game week one for Kjetil Knutsen’s side as they swept aside fierce rivals Tromso, who were facing arguably the toughest fixture of their first season back in Eliteserien.

The contest was as good as over inside the opening 15 minutes as one of the new signings Erik Botheim opened the scoring with long serving Ulrik Saltnes doubling their lead before a second half own goal eliminated any doubt as to who would be taking all three points.

The Owls ended last season with a 3-1 home defeat to Haugesund and their preparations coming in to the new one don’t make for pretty reading either losing three of their four warm up games to OBOS-ligaen sides Ranheim and Aalesund plus fellow top flight outfit Rosenborg conceding a total of 13 goals whilst only getting on the score sheer once themselves.

A goalless draw with Molde was the only pre-season fixture in which Christian Michelsen’s side managed to avoid defeat however as already mentioned the same opponents made it a losing start to the season for him and his team and their recent form against Bodø/Glimt will not fill them with too much confidence ahead of this clash.

The Superlaget are unbeaten in eight meetings with Kristiansund, winning seven including edging a five-goal thriller in this one last season, so although there is doubt how their new look side will settle their opening victory was perfectly acceptable and I am taking them to extend the poor recent form of their hosts here.

Unibet offer the best odds of 5/6 for a Bodø/Glimt win – however if that price has gone by the time you get round to placing your bet, odds of 1/1 are available with Bet 365 via Bet Builder if you add over 1.5 Bodo goals to the win – something they have achieved in each of their last five encounters with Kristiansund and in their last 30 victories in all competitions.