WORLD football fanatic James O'Rourke (@JamesOR1) continues-off his 2019 travails with two hand-picked best bets from across the continent on Saturday.
Volos v PAOK | Saturday 26th October 2019, 17:30
PAOK maintained their solid start to the season with a home win over Lamia last weekend, a game in which they scored all three goals in their 3-0 win inside 11 minutes. They coasted for the remainder of the clash, but a much stern test is likely to await next time up.
That is because they make the trip to Magnesia to take on Volos, who were only formed in June 2017. Nevertheless, they’ve enjoyed a fairly decent start to life in the Greek top flight, however they are on a three-game losing streak after opening the campaign with back-to-back victories.
The issue for Volos however is that they are starting to ship goals, and that is a major concern when facing the reigning champions. They’ve conceded three goals in their last three running, and they already have the worst defensive record in the division after seven games, despite sitting in the top- half of the standings.
PAOK however aren’t as secure defensively as they were last season. They only conceded 14 goals in the entirety of their title-winning season in 30 games. However, they’ve already shipped nine in seven so far, which isn’t disastrous at all, but they set such a high standard and haven’t been able to maintain it.
One thing that does sort of tie these two teams together is they know where the back of the net is. PAOK have 16 goals to their name, making them the leading scorers as things stand. Volos have nine goals, but they’ve only failed to score in one league game so far, and after winning promotion last season they’re used to attacking.
Taking that into account, we have to entertain Both teams to score for this encounter, especially at a price of 20/23 (Betfair). Every PAOK game this season has ended above 2.5 goals, averaging 3.60 goals, and Volos’ average 3.40. These numbers are the top two in the league out of every club. Goals really should be on the agenda this weekend.
PAOK are quite clearly the stronger team, but they are certainly more vulnerable away compared to at home, having kept only two clean sheets in their last 10 on the road in the league. This should be a good game, with goals at each end.
Vitesse Arnhem v ADO Den Haag | Saturday 26th October 2019, 18:45
The under the stewardship of former CSKA Moscow, Hull City and Russia boss Leonid Slutsky, Vitesse are quietly going about their business in Eredivisie. They’ve enjoyed a fine start to the season, and four straight wins has lifted them to third in the table, sitting only three points behind league leaders Ajax and level on points with PSV.
Den Haag on the other hand have gone in the opposite direction, and they go into the weekend third from bottom. They’ve lost their last five matches running and an additional concern for them is that they’ve failed to score in three of them. Scoring goals has been a bit of an issue for them, with only bottom side Waalwijk and Venlo scoring fewer after ten matches.
Vitesse have always found it tough to break into the top bracket of teams at this level, which is of course dominated by Ajax and PSV. They are however very much in the ‘best of the rest’ category and to maintain that title at the very least they need to be winning games of this nature. The market states it is very likely, especially as only PSV have defeated them this season.
There are however some encouraging signs for Den Haag approaching this contest. Naturally expectations will be quite low, so there shouldn’t be a great deal of pressure upon them to get something away to an in-form opponent.
These however are the sort of encounters that Vitesse can have some issues negotiating. They normally get the job done, but clean sheets aren’t their speciality. In the 2018/19 regulation season, they kept only one home clean sheet, conceding against every team from 8th to 18th at home, winning eight and drawing three.
Even this season Vitesse have shown some defensive vulnerabilities. They kept their third clean sheet of the campaign last time out when beating Venlo easily, but it is just one home clean sheet in 2019 but have only lost the once.
We are taking a bit of a chance here in some senses considering Den Haag are lacking goals, but Vitesse are leaky and they will concede chances.
Vitesse to in and Both Teams To Score has to be the play at 29/20 (Coral) considering how regularly this selection has paid out of many, many months in Vitesse home league fixtures.
Best Bets
Volos v PAOK – Both Teams To Score (20/23 Betfair)
Vitesse Arnhem v ADO Den Haag – Vitesse Arnhem to win and Both Teams To Score (29/20 Coral)
