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Pecs are not much of a host, and Diosgyor are a great away team, the most successful one in the Hungarian league. They are also much better than the home team, especially at this moment. Pecs will not have their best scorer Koller vs Diosgyor, which is a big handicap. They won their last two games, but those were against teams from the bottom of the ranking table. Regardless of the high defeat vs Ferencvaros whom they are always struggling against, Diosgyor are a powerful team, arriving to Baranja with an almost full roster. Details

Gornik have reinforced their roster tremendously prior to the season, but those reinforcements needed to be tuned in and formed into a competitive team. As this cannot happen over night, their game did display certain ups and downs, but a look at their scores reveals a lot. They lost to Wisla, Kielce, and MMTS, and played a tied game vs Pogon. This means they lost points to 4 strong teams, with the defeat vs MMTS somewhat of a surprise as well. They did well in that last game too, but their defense failed when they needed it most. That defeat got them angry, and they sent a clear message through the media that they intend to correct that mistake today. One thing is clear: Gornik have a top level team. Maybe not a title team, but worthy of a third place. They had three weeks to tune in, and that is an added value to this bet. Glogow have demonstrated certain quality, but I think they still lack the required level to parry a team like Gornik in their home court. Jurasik and company simply have to win today if they wish to keep their ambitions alive. I trust the home to score a decisive victory. Details

Nordsjaelland are among the 2 or 3 best teams of the league, for years now. The team won the title two years ago, ranked second last year, and although there were some changes to the team, the base is still there and FCN belong to the upper echelons of the Superliga. The reasons for a slightly poor season opening lie in those roster changes, the injuries they've been struggling with since the season started, playing in Europe, and the way they play. Coach Hjulmand likes them keeping the ball down, dominating the possession, with the players going out high and taking a lot of risk. They rarely play "for the result", and as the team was not set up in the start, the results did not come. All those segments look much better now. If we ignore the loss to Copenhagen, FCN tied together a few games where they remind us of their performance last year. Two victories against the very good Midtjylland team give them a lot of confidence, as well as the away win vs Aarhus. The team is almost complete, and despite the defeat vs FCK, they are meeting Sonderjyske in a good atmosphere.
The away team are coming to this match from a five loss series. As Hulmand said before, these series are somewhat typical of Sonderjyske, both positive and negative ones. The added bad news is that their already narrow roster is further thinned down by the absence of three standard players. Questions are posed on whether coach Sondergaard is still the right solution, the team are behind the rest of the league, and the coach himself admitted that the situation is critical. Nordsjaelland should take advantage of the difficulties the away team are going through. Details

Generally speaking, Bellucci has been having a terrible season. His ranking plummeted but he started doing better in the last 10 days. Seven wins in a row, only a single lost set, a tile in Montevideo after which he admitted his confidence is back and he again believes in himself. When he is so confident, he is a Top 50 player at any moment In addition, the Bogota conditions are good for his aggressive game style. He gets lots of free points with his tricky left-handed serve or he gets the advantage immediately. He's shown that with 2 convincing wins against Odesnik and Gonzalez. However, I think him regaining his confidence is much more important. Lorenzi, on the other hand, has had many difficulties in the first 2 rounds and it is clear that the Bogota conditions do go hand in hand with his style as it is not based on strong rallies but lots of running. The air is less dense and the players get tired more easily and he cannot use the ball speed as some other players can. In addition, when Bellucci is playing his tennis, he is a better player than Lorenzi even though the rankings do not suggest that. One thing's for certain - it's all up to Bellucci. Details

Haslum are the best team in the league. They are playing excellent handball and one can tell they have a great setup, but I do not believe they will beat Stord today. The away team also beat Runar by +10, as well as Dramen (with whom Haslum struggled) by another +10. They gave Fyllingen, not a weak team, a lot of trouble a few days ago, and I don't see them as inferior as the betting houses are suggesting. Stord have a quality offense led by Knudsen, they play similar handball to Haslum, and will be trying to outplay their opponents today. A loss by 7 sounds too high for this Stord team. Details

Giannina have a new coach, which should be a positive shock to the players, as usual. When we consider that according to many he was also the best coach last season, this means even more. A team with ambitions of playing European matches should be able to beat OFI at home. The away team beat Aris at home last round, but Aris are playing very poorly, and OFI also played with one more player for the full 90 minutes. Even if OFI had a full roster, this could easily be a home win bet, and when we also know that the away team will be missing four players among the standard 11, this is a bet you cannot skip. Details

Aberdeen have been investing in their team but the results were lacking. This season, the situation is different. The squad is once again among the strongest in the league, they have an experienced and powerful team that are, according to coach McInnes, playing in full confidence. Beating Motherwell, Hibernian and Dundee United in consecutive games is not a small thing.The only team to beat them at home so far are Celtic, while they lost their away games against Ross County and their opponents for today - Hearts - at the start of the season.This defeat will make them more careful and they will need to give their best performance.
Hearts have beaten Hibernian twice this season mostly due to fighting spirit and dedication, but apart from that and the mentioned win against Hibernian, we haven't seen much else from this young team this season. At home, where their support is excellent, each of their players gives his all and the results are solid there, but they only have 1 point (Patrick) from away games. They generally in poor form, they have 7 defeats in 8 games and as coach Locke said, this young team has lost its confidence. The circumstances are very hard and it doesn't seem likely that Hearts will lose any points at Pittodrie. Details

Buducnost is undoubtedly the better team, as the first match in Podgorica demonstrated. However, they will not cover this handicap today in my opinion, for several reasons:
They are looking for a win today, a must-win situation, and this will bring extra tension, that will make them go for game control, and not chasing a score, as the goal ratio does not count vs the Polish team. Adzic is a coach that likes to control the match. If a big lead is possible he allows it, but he plays differently in away games where the aim is to take both points, calming down the game and with tactical discipline being crucial while the run-and-gun of scoring is secondary. Lublin are also a different team at home, playing much better and more relaxed than in away games. The Danes felt it, barely making it through, as well as Ferencvaros, who left Lublin with +2, while winning +15 in the first game in Budapest. Apart from that, Adzic must preserve his team for the key home game with Ferencvaros next week, where he will need all available weapons at his disposal. The home team playing relaxed and well when there is no pressure to achieve a result, the nervous away team looking to control the entire course of the game and get both points, and the excellent strategist Adzic who will know how to close down a game are all reasons why I think Buducnost will not manage to cover this handicap. Details

Savehof's center back Schedvert said ahead of the last game that his team won't concede over 25 goals on many more occasions. With this statement, he made clear that they will give their defense lots of attention, particularly more than in previous season. Onnereds pays even more attention to the defense. They will try to get their first win of the season in front of the packed Scandinavium Arena, but it is well-known they perform great in front of a huge crowd. On the other hand, Savehof have not been very efficient in away games. They scored 38 goals against the super-fast Rimbo, but mostly because the opponents fell apart while they scored 25 against Skovde, 23 against RIK, and 20 against Malmo (who also like faster games).
Truth be told, Onnereds conceded +30 goals per game at the start of the season, but now they've managed to stabilized their game. No one has gone over this margin against them in the last four rounds, and the very fast Drott came the closest as they scored exactly 30. However, this very Drott scored 27 against Flensburg, 30 against Hamburg, 35 against La Rioja and one can see that they are a very potent team. The guests announced they will focus on defense and I don't think one can expect them to get over 30 goals, especially in today's slightly different atmosphere. And if they don't score over 30 they won't by over 5 goals as well... Details

Gabashvili often plays without any compromise, but he is dangerous once he gets into his game. He beat the title-defending Becker here yesterday and he is not short of confidence. Seppi himself said that he expects his toughest task so far. He is aware just how dangerous the Russian can be in these conditions. They've played on the concrete on three occasions, 2 of which were indoors and they went over this margin on all 3 occasions. Details

I spent a long time trying to find the reasons for such a high margin, which went even higher than the starting odds. If we count in all the games they played this season, the cup, European, league, and friendly games as well, Ankara have 13 unders and one over for the current margin. That one was vs Trabzon, the most offensive oriented team of the league, at least up to their coach getting replaced. Mersin have 7 unders and two overs, one against that very Trabzon, the other against the machine called Fenerbahce. If we take this even further, they played a cup game prior to the season, also in Mersin, which ended 80-74. They played in the preseason as well, 73-63. Mersin are at 1-3 and this is a very important game for them. Ankara are coming from an unfortunate defeat vs Novgorod, whom they were beating for three quarters and would have left at 60 points, were it not for a horrible final period (20-2 for the Russians). The important details for this match-up are the following: Mersin have Samardziski, with the strength, height and muscle to counter Golubovic, the Ankara center who is playing his career best at the moment. Ankara on the other hand, with Rasic, Valters and Tucker in their guard line, have a way to parry the offensive quality Mersin have in Barbour, Theodore and Henderson. Due to all that, I have to take this with a strong bet. Details

I doubt Nordsjaelland have much of a chance in a slow game, where the away team's defense would dominate led by their goalie Green, and defensive specialists Nielsen and Jakobson. As they are rather inferior physically, I expect them to speed up the game, and they went over the 52.2 margin even against the best defenses in the league, such as Kolding and Aalborg. This is a match where they can play a relaxed game, the next week is much more important for them. ON the other hand, BSV have lost their two main scorers, so I expect them to speed things up as well, with lots of transition and easy goals. Details

Ukraine beat a pretty weak Romania, with some style, but today they are facing a much tougher opposition. The Ukranian coach Nazarov, the coach of Donbass - a team well-renowned for their defensive approach, said that he expects a real battle on ice and a really tough game. It is not surprising since the Poles lead by the Russian expert Zaharkin who's put together a compact and sensible team. They conceded their first and only goal in the regular time against the Hungarian hosts in the 59th minute and from boxplay. When comparing the last few games of Ukraine and Poland, the Ukrainians are missing several important forwards, exactly those players who scored in that game. Defense has been the best part of the Polish national team, their keepers are solid, they are well-organized and Ukraine are also playing strong hockey under Nazarov. Details

Lacko lives in Bratislava and often has his training sessions in this arena. Last year he played in the semi-finals here. He had a tough match against Mecir in the second round but he played great tennis. This is Struff's ninth match in 2 weeks. He saved 4 match-points. Stakhovksky had 2 in a row on his serve and 2 on his return. He failed, but I believe he did Lacko a favor as he had an easy task yesterday. The Slovakian player berated himself for being to relaxed, but this won't happen today. He is aware of Struff's quality and he should be able to get into new finals at his home court. Details

With half the championship in the Bosnia and Herzegovina Premier league behind us, we can say with 80% certainty that Leotar of Trebinje will be relegated to the second league. Barring some miracle windfall of cash to the club during the winter break which would allow reinforcements, this is an almost certain scenario. However while the championship is still on in this year, one should use this to bet against Leotar, especially when the extremely ambitious Olimpic are arriving, as they have yet to lose an away game. The team from Sarajevo are filled with confidence, they are playing at a high level and with a full roster in this away game, with Leotar hardly able to parry them in any segment. To ad to that, the home team are missing their two standard defenders, Prebiracevic and Djajic, which further weakens the already tired and mentally beaten roster of Leotar.
This is a game that depends on the way the much better away team enters and plays the game. Should the Olimpic perform the way they did so far, they will find a way to score at least one more than Leotar. Olimpic already strolled through Trebinje in the cup game with 2-0, and were even more convincing in the first round of the championship, wining 4-0. They were victorious twice in the last four seasons when playing here, with one 0-0 tied game, back when Leotar were a much stronger and serious opponent than this season. Details

Rudes are to be congratulated for not losing to Solin in their last seven matches, but it would really be a major surprise if they managed to continue that great run. Rudes have lost six of their seven away games in the championship, Solin badly needs points, and the away team are coming from Zagreb without five of their usual starting 11. This is a big chance for Solin to climb up from the bottom, a chance they should not miss. Details

Both teams have won their previous Euroleauge game, and considering this is a debut in the elite competition, these wins have historical significance. Nanterre shocked Barcelona, but this Barce should have lost against Juventut, and even against Bruesa who will try not to get relegated. Budivelnik are a new team on paper, but their roster has a lot of experience and quality. They have the width on all positions and the recent form their main players, Lavrinovic and Summers in particular, shows that the away team have the upper hand. One cannot say Nanterre are in worse form by all means, but the French league simply doesn't have the quality as the Euroleague, and I daresay, not even as Budivelnik. The Ukranians have versatile players, their back court can play a solid defense, they are great in the transition and I expect them to make a difference there. This is a very important match, and beautiful game is not a priority for either team and the experience of Budivelnik's team is speaks a bit in favor of the Ukrainian champions. Details

Fenerbahce's undefeated run will face a huge test tonight in a packed Pionir. Partizan have been powerful here for years regardless of who they're up against. And they have the best team here since Bo McCalebb took them to Final Four in Paris. Bogdanovic and Milosavljevic have matured as players as they're doing great in both directions, Fener's shooting guards will have lots of problems with them. Partizan can match Vidmar and Zoric with Gagic and Musli in the paint, and if Lauvergne shows what he knows against Bjelica and Kleiza, this should be a very close game that Partizan could even win. In any way, I think they have far better chances than this handicap would suggest. Details

Unicaja are being underestimated too much, and Bayern favored too much. The German team still have to prove themselves on the biggest scene. They earned their place in the elite with their name and with lobbying, but now they have to prove it on the court. An away game against the Greeks can't be compared to the one today, because Greeks can play with everyone on both 100 and 50 points, Olympiacos are a top team. A game against Siena that Bayern won at home, cannot be compared to this one, either, because the Italians are miserable in their defense, which shows from the defeat against Stelmet. I won't even mention the German league in the context of today's game. Unicaja are something different with Plaza on the bench. The Spaniards have top potential in the defense, starting with two point guards, Calloway and Granger, who can put the pressure on Delenay, and continuing with Dragic, Suarez, Vazquez, Stimac, and all the other amazing defensive players. Plaza isn't crazy to allow the team to rush against Bayern, he doesn't have a team that can win games with 90 points. They played 7 official games so far, and conceded over 80 points in none. I believe it won't happen tonight, either. It's time someone put the Germans down, because they don't deserve to be in the Euroleague. Details