Will the visitors seize the opportunity?
Matchday in the Finnish top flight! The Veikkausliiga season has already reached the halfway point, and the hosts can be satisfied with their third-place standing so far. Is it worth betting on a home win for Ilves against VPS?
The visitors’ form suggests so, as they are coming off a three-game losing streak. However, the timing of the match plays into Vaasa PS’s hands: Ilves Tampere is currently also competing in the Europa League qualifiers and played against Donetsk last week.
The match in Ljubljana, the Ukrainians’ alternative venue, ended in a 0-6 defeat for the Finns, which means that the return leg in Tampere in a few days’ time is now only of statistical interest. However, Ilves will be physically more tired than their opponents due to the additional match. The forecast for the clash between Ilves and VPS at the picturesque Tammela Stadium therefore includes more than one goal for the visitors.
Ilves – Statistics & current form
The 1983 champions can count on home advantage against VPS: only one of the seven home games played in the league this season has ended in defeat for the Tampere side, and no fewer than five of those games ended in victory for Ilves!
However, as mentioned at the beginning, the home side will now be less fresh than their opponents due to the additional qualifying game in the Europa League. Against this backdrop, the odds for a draw in the duel between Ilves and VPS are also worth considering. You can place your bets at Betano, where the bookmaker also has Betano free bets available!
Ilves concedes numerous goals at home
Another shortcoming of the four-time Finnish Cup winners is that, although their home record is good, their defense in front of their own fans still has a lot of room for improvement. For this reason, there is no shortage of goals in the home games of coach Joonas Rantanen’s team. On average, 3.4 goals are scored, and only one of “Ipa’s” seven home games ended with less than 2.5 goals – the highest figure in the Veikkausliiga home standings!
Ilves’ expected line-up:
Virtanen – Maenpaa, Miettunen, Rale – Wallius, Veteli, Popovitch, Jukkola – Soderback, Akinyemi, Ala-Myllymaki
VPS – Statistics & current form
The club from Vaasa feels quite at home away from home. After seven away games, the men from Lemonsoft Stadium have a balanced record with three wins, three losses, and one draw.
The offense of the fifth-place team in the last edition of the Veikkausliiga has been particularly impressive lately. They have scored no less than twelve times in their last five away games!
This is an impressive record, especially considering that the team is currently without striker Mads Borchers. This means they are missing a particularly strong finisher, who has scored five goals in six appearances this season and impressed last season with ten goals in 16 league games.
No shortage of goals in VPS’s away games
The prediction is backed up by the visitors’ equally prolific away form: only one of their seven games has ended with fewer than three goals, and the average is even higher at 3.9 goals! A look at VPS’s goal distribution also shows how strong the visitors’ attack is away from home: around 71 percent of their 21 goals this season have been scored in away games!
Predicted line-up for VPS:
Leislahti – Niemi, Reid, Haukioja – Raisanen, Ahiabu, Dekker, El Ouatki – Cicale, Jakonen, Fall
Ilves – VPS Head-to-head record / H2H record
The teams last faced each other in May this year in Vaasa. In that encounter, VPS secured a 1-0 home win against the runners-up.
Thanks to this very fortunate victory, which came about only thanks to a goal by Canadian Nicolas Fleuriau in extra time, the two-time national champions, most recently in 1948, ended a previous streak of five winless matches in this pairing (0-1-4). For the upcoming match between Ilves and VPS, however, the odds are once again pointing towards a home win.
Ilves – VPS Tip
For the match between Ilves and VPS, the prediction is for more than one goal by the visitors. Admittedly, the home team is strong at home, but the visitors from Vaasa have not been shy about scoring goals on the road recently. Looking back at their last five away games, coach Jussi Nuorela’s team has averaged 2.4 goals per game!
In addition, the hosts are less fresh physically than “Vepsu” due to their current participation in the Europa League qualifiers. The timing of the match between the two international games of the home team therefore supports the Ilves vs. VPS prediction!