RFPL Week 10: Betting Advice

Bet One: €CSKA - Ufa: HT/FT Draw/CSKA @3.5 at Bet365

The spectacular Arena CSKA is finally open for business - good news for a stadium that apparently will enter the record books as having the most office space in world football - after many months of delays to the grand opening. The first match against Terek couldn’t have gone much better, with Lacina Traore finally opening his account with a well-taken double to inspire their biggest winning margin of the season in front of a buzzing crowd. The dramatic contrast to the damp squib of a performance and desperately underwhelming crowd in the next home game against much more glamorous opponents Krasnodar was concerning, however.

In both games CSKA did score in the first half, but they have failed to do so in five out of the other seven league games his season, and have only managed to scrape just over one goal a game. The honeymoon period of playing in a sparkling new venue is well and truly over already, so they can’t count on that as a boost to their momentum. Their defence has been tight as usual with a joint-lowest five conceded, and face an Ufa side that have only scored five themselves all season, so a low-scoring contest is likely, especially as they are likely to be without three of their most creative players in the suspended Roman Eremenko, Alan Dzagoev and Alexander Golovin.

Bet Two: €5 Amkar - Lokomotiv: Correct Score 0-0 @5.50 at Bet365

In the volatile world of Russian football, the dour defensive solidity of Gadzhi Gadzhiev’s Amkar is one of those rare reliable factors. The Russian Allardyce is a metronome for grinding out results that suit his purposes and nobody else’s, least of all the fee-paying fans, and the only unbreached home defence in the league is unlikely to be troubled by a Lokomotiv side that struggles to even select a first choice striker, yet alone persuade him to score. There is very little pace in Amkar’s attack - least of all in the majestically talented legs of former Tyumen cult hero Stanislav Prokofeev - that could trouble Lokomotiv’s backline.

Meanwhile the Railroaders only have two players to have scored more than a single goal all season so far, and have managed one goal as a team in their last four matches. Yuriy Semin is yet to work his magic in his fourth stint at the club and has not had a chance to build the team with his own players so shouldn’t be judged yet, but for now Loko are uninspiring at best. Five out of their nine league games have been drawn - a league high - and they’ve failed to score in their last two away games.

Bet Three: €10 Ural - Zenit: Zenit to win with -1.5 handicap @2.38 at Bet365

Much as my personal loyalties lie with Ural (I will be at the SKB Bank Arena again this Sunday), it is impossible to look past the Zenit machine rolling into town with its customary force. Vadim Skripchenko appears uncertain over exactly what his long term plan is in terms of setting up his side having ditched the impressive three-man defence for a more conventional back four, and although they haven’t been turned over embarrassingly yet, they also haven’t faced the Giuliano-inspired Zenit yet either.

It is truly terrifying for other teams to watch Zenit at the moment. On paper the statistics are mind-boggling; they’ve scored at least four goals in seven of their last eight matches, boast the league’s second and joint-third top goalscorers in Giuliano and Artyom Dzyuba, and their defence away from home has conceded the lowest total in the league. Destroying a Massimo Carrera defence with four goals last time out, they’ll smell blood in Ekaterinburg; in this fixture last season, they smashed four past Ural.

RFN Total: +€82.74

Vincent Tanguy: +€146.85 (hit rate: 7/16 – 43.75%)

David Sansun: +€143.25 (hit rate: 11/33 – 33.33 %)

Ben Clark: +€108.5 (hit rate: 11/27 – 40.74%)

Thomas Giles: +€70.2 (hit rate 15/29 – 51.72 %)

Jack Beresford: +€42 (hit rate 2/6 – 33.33 %)

Toke Theilade: +€11.89 (hit rate: 6/12 – 50 %)

Danny Armstrong: -€8 (hit rate: 2/6 – 33.33 %)

Stefano Conforti: -€36 (hit rate: 1/6 – 16.66 %)

Andrew Flint: -€40 (hit rate: 6/30 – 20 %)

Ilya Sokolov: -€119,6 (hit rate: 5/28 – 17.86 %)