Our roving football reporters Dan Richardson and James Baxter from the BritskiBelasi blog with their passion for Slovak football have given their expert insight into this week’s Corgon league football matches. For those who fancy a flutter, there might be some good tips here. Let’s see how they do.
DAC – Trnava
This game is kicking off on Friday at 17:00 possibly due to security reasons. Both teams are on long unbeaten runs and the question is whether something will give in Dunajska Streda. It’s a tough one to call, and for that reason I’ll go for a draw:
Predictions: Dan: 1-1 James: 1-1
ViOn – Dukla
2 teams level on points in 5th and 6th place, perhaps Dukla the side which are showing the slightly better form at the moment. ViOn are having problems scoring goals and it’s hard to identify exactly where are Dukla’s strengths and weaknesses after they drew their last 2 games 3-3 and 0-0 against Zilina and Slovan respectively. It would be easy to go for a draw here, but I’ll stick my neck out and go for an away win – just a gut feeling based on recent form – ViOn lost their last 2 games against Nitra and Tatran (both away) however their home form is slightly better.
Predictions: Dan: 1-2 James: 2-1
Kosice – Senica
For several weeks already I have had this feeling that Senica would fall away from their current lofty position but they are still there determinedly holding on to 3rd spot level with Trnava. They lost a couple of games in October, then recovered slightly with 2 draws and a win from their last 3 matches, but what this means is hard to say – the strength of their opposition in these games hasn’t been great with the exception of DAC, but those 2 teams’ friendly relationship suggested the draw suited everybody that night!
If this match had been a couple of weeks ago I would have no hesitation in backing Senica, purely due to the horrendous start to the season by Kosice, however the 2nd city team are showing signs of life now and have moved off the bottom following a win over Nitra and a draw at Ruzomberok. The bookies are also really unsure on this one with both teams getting almost identical odds of around 2.6 for the win. Am I allowed to say this is another really tough one to call?! I think most of them are this week – but once again I’ll stick my neck out and go for Kosice.
Predictions: Dan: 2-1 James: 1-1
Dubnica – Presov
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any harder, up pops another really tricky match to call! This is actually a really important match at the bottom of the table, a real relegation ’6-pointer’ ! You fear for Dubnica both on and off the pitch at the moment, and it’s interesting to see them installed as favourites for this match. This time I’m going to go for a draw again .. the Corgon Liga does get more than it’s fair share of draws!
Predictions: Dan: 1-1 James: 0-1
Slovan – Nitra
Well, this time Slovan have to win and they have to win in style. The team from the capital have been struggling in the goalscoring department of late but this match against a Nitra side who have been slipping down the table after 3 defeats on the bounce should really offer Slovan an opportunity to get back on track. Zilina are starting to disappear over the top of the hill but 2nd place is still a realistic target for Slovan if they get a decent run of form together. This is the weekend to start it and I think they just might ..
Predictions: Dan: 3-0 James: 4-0
Zilina – Ruzomberok
Zilina are 6 points clear and I wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes 8 this weekend if my predictions for Trnava and Senica hold true. Whatever happened against Marseille, Zilina don’t seem to be making any mistakes domestically so it is almost impossible to see beyond a home win here (unless you fancy odds of up to 11.0 on Ruzomberok!)
Predictions: Dan: 4-0 James: 2-1