Halmstad – Malmo

Halmstad and Malmo face off in the 18th round of Sweden`s Allsvenskan. The hosts sit on the second to last place with just 14 points, while Malmo is third, gaining 32 points so far. Earlier in the season the two teams finished tied, with a 1-1 result at Malmo.

Halmstad doesn`t look good this season, they lost some players and are now involved in a tight fight for staying in the Allsvenskan. Five teams are separated by just 3 points (from 11th place to 15th), Halmstad being last of this group. The hosts have a horrible home record, with only 1 win and 4 draws from 8 games and they are a poor offensive team, with an average of under one goal scored per game. Their form is very poor, losing 5 out of the last 10 games and winning only once, against the worst team in the league, Syrianska. This is a huge game for them, they need at least a draw to gain some points in the relegation battle.

Malmo has a great squad this season, and many were convinced that they could win the title. They can still do it, being on third place, just 5 points behind leaders Helsinborgs. Their title challenge took a blow last week when they lost 2-0 at Gefle (11th placed, but a good team underperforming this season), and thursday they had another bad game, being defeated 4-0 by Swansea. Before these two games Malmo was in fabulous form, defeating Hibernian 9-0 aggregate in the Europa League and winning 5 out of 6 games in the Allsvenskan. This is a must-win game for the visitors, if they want to keep their title hopes alive, but also for the european cup spots, as the championship in Sweden is very tight and Malmo has 4 teams just waiting to overtake them.

The visitors don`t have any new injury worries and I`m sure the mid-week game in the Europa League won`t cause problems today. They were expected to lose and they surely were aware that the game against Halmstad is very important, so they trained properly for this double. This is confirmed by their coach, he said that the team is more than ready to play and win this.

It`s a big game for both teams but Malmo, with its quality and experience, has to be able to edge this. I don`t think they can lose another “easy” key game after the one against Gefle. Halmstad is a poor opponent, it`s a perfect situation for Malmo to forget the last week and restart its great form. The visitors should be able to subdue their opponents, score one or two of goals and keep a clean sheet against such a poor offensive team. Halmstad should relegate after the way they played so far this season. They don`t have too many arguments to pull of an upset against this strong Malmo squad.

Malmo was priced the same last week against Gefle, an encounter which was tougher than this one, so I`m happy to take them at these odds with pretty high stakes.

Pick: Malmo
Odds: 1.78 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 6.24
Event date: 4 August