EUROPEAN football fanatic Mark O'Haire (@MarkOHaire) is heading to Denmark for his next best bet from the continent.
Horsens v Brondby | Sunday 17th March 2019, 16:00
The Danish Superligaen will split into two after Sunday’s round of matches and the middle of the table is very congested as clubs jostle for places in the top-six. With plenty still to play for, Sunday afternoon’s showdown between Horsens and Brondby promises plenty.
The pair are separated by six places in the league standings, although there’s just four points difference between the two. Horsens would like to sign off the regular season in style and pull clear of the stragglers at the bottom of the table. Meanwhile, Brondby are fully focussed on securing European football for next season.
Ten-time domestic champions Brondby have stumbled since returning from the winter break, taking top honours just once in five fixtures (W1-D2-L2), shipping 11 goals. That sample includes a solitary point taken from a possible nine on the road, leaking at least twice in those three recent road trips.
Martin Retov remains in caretaker charge following Alexander Zorniger’s sacking last month and the Copenhagen club look anything but even-money shots this weekend despite returning a reasonable W6-D1-L5 outside of their capital base in 2018/19. Instead, Brondby’s defensive deficiencies should lead us towards the goals-based markets.
Goals on the agenda
Both Teams To Score has been chalked up at 7/10 (William Hill) and that’s an appealing play. Hosts’ Horsens have tabled only two home triumphs this term and they’ve tended to come unstuck against the division’s leading lights. However, the Yellow Danger are well capable of breaching their opponents’ backline.
Brondby have silenced only two of their hosts – one of which came in their campaign curtain-raiser back in July. Since that early encounter, the capital club have conceded 1.81 goals per-game away, whilst no top-half team has shipped more goals than the guests.
Two of Horsens’ three home clean sheets came against bottom-three outfits and no Superligaen side has conceded more often this season. As we can see, neither team stands out as a defensively-sound outfit and I’m a fan of supporting goals in these sorts of games; poor defences often breed goals, as much as prolific forwardlines.
Thankfully, these two clubs have tended to be smart operators in the final-third. They’ve collectively notched in 21 of their combined 24 home/away outings this term, and 51/60 when viewing the same records since the start of last season.
Therefore, the duo have delivered an outstanding 18/24 (75%) profitable BTTS bets in their respective home/away clashes in 2018/19, and 42/60 (70%) successful Both Teams To Score selections since the start of last season also. Such overwhelming trends make the 7/10 (William Hill) available on a repeat on Sunday easy pickings.
Best Bets
Horsens v Brondby – Both Teams To Score (7/10 William Hill)