betprepare.com

Siroki Brijeg played a flawless match tactically in Azerbaijan, and defeated Gabala 2-0, while Gabala didn't have one serious hit towards their goal. For a club with ten times the budget of their opponent, and numerous expensive reinforcements lead by coach Munteanu, it was a very disappointing outcome, but the question is, can this team do better in the return fixture? Gabala have better individuals than Siroki Brijeg, but it remains to be seen if they can fix their game and at least get a positive result, if not a complete triumph. This is the kind of a match that often goes either all the way for the winner, or the loser from the first duel show their full potential and get the result. We think the second might happen, more so because Siroki Brijeg will pass through even with a minimal result, and their tactics will be to save what they have and make the match difficult, as the coach Musa announced by saying, " we won't rush". The home team can wait for the counter attacks and the opponent's mistakes, and Gabala have what it takes to threaten much better than seven days ago. The forwards Mendy, Cristea and Dodo, helped by the experienced midfielder Ropotano, are definitely good enough to shine, so the odds set aren't the real ratio of strength of these two clubs, that is, Gabala have more capacity to play at least an even match on Pecara, if not more.
The Romanian coach Munteanu got very angry when the press asked him if he feels the imperative to win and if he's worried about his job if he loses again, and the info that the Azerbaijans came to BiH on Monday clearly shows they will try to do their best on the pitch. Their quality and motivation aren't questionable, the home team can go through even if they lose by one goal, and we're forced to play on Gabala not being defeated. Details

Lithuania beat the Greeks at the start but I can't say they knocked me off my feet with their performance. I would rather say the Greeks would have won had their center Diamantokas not gotten into penalty problems and got little playing time. Lithuania are here without two tall players, they struggled with defending against pick in preparations and they generally struggle in the paint, while they're facing opponents whose primary strength lies in three tall players Gromovs, Šmits and Pasečniks, and the latter two have a very good perimeter shot, while Gromovs is great in blocks and rebounds. Yesterday, the refs helped the Greeks against Latvia a bit, they called 4 penalties against Gromovs in the first part, 3 against Šmits and Lativa still managed to hold on and had the last 12-second attack at -1. They didn't manage to win and now have a 0-2 score even though they could have had 2-0 by now. I somehow get the impression they can give the medal contenders a run for their money. Details

Struggling against Russia, struggling against Bulgaria. In short, that's how France did so far on this European Championship. In my humble opinion, Israel are better than Bulgaria for sure, and at least even with Russia. So, playing on the Israelis to cover this handicap makes sense. France had too many problems with Bulgaria, and couldn't use their bad centers even though they have Jaiteh on that position. But, Jaiteh isn't playing as nearly as good as in the preseason. Yesterday, Dallo saved them, but I already said, consistency isn't his strength. The Israelis played extremely well against the Polish. They played the defense great, while the offense was versatile. They had great two pointer and three pointer percentages, 41 jump, and what's important, because it was a blowout, the players didn't get tired, while for the French, this will be the third match in three days, and the first two were really exhausting. Details

Honka this year aren't the shadow of the team from the last season, who were on top in two thirds of the championship, definitely not a small feat considering that HJK Helsinki dominate for years now. The team mostly consisted of younger players, and the backbone of the Finnish junior team were basically Honka and a few other players. Honka's players' good games in the club and the national team were noticed by other clubs, of course. The team fell apart during the winter, all the important players left and now Honka are where they are. The Estonians aren't that strong that we should play against the "weak" Honka now, but considering the result from the first match, they can obviously stand up to them. The match was even, the Estonians managed to go ahead to 2-0, and Honka got their goal by using the white dot situation at the end of the match. Honka will take their time today because even 1-0 would take them through, and that's exactly where I see the Estonians' chance. If they defend themselves well, which they did decently in the first match, they can go through, and if they lose with the minimal difference, half the bet will be the winning one with this handicap. Details

The Russian coach Mihailov is a great tactician and he made smart moves to neutralize France's top players to ensure a huge win for his team. Russia had one day of rest yesterday and this suited Mihailov well so that he could prepare his game plan for Bulgaria, and it gave the players a chance to recover some lost energy. In terms of tactics, Mihailov is aware that he can lose this match if he tries to outrun Bulgaria as he doesn't have the team that can handle a high-scoring game. I'm sure he'll try to slow things down as much as he can to dull Bulgaria's main asset, and pass many balls to centers Kanjigin and Desjatnjikov since Bulgaria's centers are very poor. As I said, Bulgaria are generally speaking a team for overs, but this will be a do-or-die game for them. A defeat will certainly put them out of top 3 teams and they will not be too relaxed. The pressure is high, the stakes even higher. In addition, this is their third game in three days and fatigue is bound to slow them down. Again, even though Bulgaria are a team for overs, I cannot ignore the facts that Russia's last 9 games had these totals - 131, 130, 132, 129, 160 (Turkey), 124, 139, 119, 108. Details

Serbia have one, and Spain two matches behind them at the EC. We can't draw conclusions for the Serbians based on one match, but they played exactly as they needed to defeat Slovenia (+12). The Spaniards, on the other hand, only played one good quarter in two matches, the last one against Germany. I saw them live yesterday, and they didn't impress me at all. The only one that deserves a passing grade is the center Hernan-Gomez, but Serbia have the men to stop him - Jankovic, Salic and Tejic. The rest of the Spaniards were weak. The Fury's coach revealed that the players are under a lot of pressure, and that's why they don't play right, and you can only imagine the pressure today, when the Spaniards have to win no matter what because a defeat would mean that a) they will carry 0 points to the second round which means bye-bye, medal, and b) they'd go to the relegation battle. Serbia are a team with a head and a tail, a great coach, a team who know what they want. It doesn't seem that Spaniards know what they want. Details

I probably saw seven-eight Lopez's match in the last month. It's a joy looking at him on the grass. A left-hand service with so many options and the boring backhand work great together on the grass. Add to that a good going towards the net, it's brilliant. Lopez looked tired on Wimbledon already. He said he had to bear through it and then he'll rest. I didn't expect him here. Last year, he skipped this week, as expected after the great grass tour. He probably came because he knew he'll be the seed, but I expect a problematic transition. I've seen a few players this week who had problems with clay after the grass, and they had far fewer matches than Lopez. Gimeno is in a completely different situation. He got married, and came here. He knows very well he can get a result only on clay, and the Top 100 status is hanging. Even he had problems playing in the rainy Stuttgart. I remember when Lopez easily lost to Struff in Munchen recently, and complained about the tough conditions. I expect him to have problems today, as well, and I expect Gimeno to be focused on playing on his favorite type of court where he can keep the rallies for days. Considering all that, the best option is definitely a win of 2-0 in sets. Details

We played over for the Turks yesterday, and considering the margin didn't go too high up, I don't see why we shouldn't try the same today. These two teams played a tournament in Istanbul recently, 42-42 at the halftime, 153 in the end. Turkey have the quality and easily get the chances for the points. They missed 11 throws and plenty of sure shots, but fixed it all against the Italians yesterday, scored 90, and even though the coach didn't use their best player Osman a lot, it only shows how good of a team they are. The Montenegrins don't have such individual quality, but they play nice and had great results in the preseason. Yesterday, they scored 84 against the Czech, with 22 missed throws, and the main players got plenty of rest. I think we'll have a nice match here and it's easily possible that the Turks will take it to 150 points. Details

Poland seem like a team much closer to a win here. I don't see why the Germans are regarded as the favorites as they took the 7th spot last year while the Poles are the reigning European champions and would have qualified for the EC had they not been swept with injuries. The Poles were unlucky with their draw as they had to host the Italians, the vice-champions of Europe who got their revenge for the last year's finals. In comparison to that round, the Poles got Nowakowska back, but the bookmakers take Damaska's absence into consideration, even though the Poles have a good team without her. They've had better preparations, their coach is happy with the performance and they seem to be in the right form. They're a strong team that never gives up and as they won both their final and semifinal matches last year in the 5th set. The Germans have had shorter preparations and have played less games and are missing two players - Jäckle and receiver Schubert. In addition, they changed their libero Petter with 15-year old Dreblow. All in all, the Germans can't be the favorites here, I see this as a 60-40 game for the Poles. Details

Borna has taken a set against Berrer indoors, Leo Mayer on clay, and he's beaten Janowicz. There's no doubt he has a bright future ahead of him. What I like about him is that he's always 'on' when he's playing. I've seen the doubles match with him and Androić on Monday and his body language seemed as if he was in a Grand Slam final and not a the first round at a challenger tournament. His first round match here in San Benedetto was also solid, and coupled with what Carballes Baena has been showin in the past two months, I think the Croat has a much better chance of winning than the odds suggest. The Spaniard had a run of 9 defeats until 2 weeks ago and then lost in the first round last week. He beat Sabrry, a player outside Top 350, losing 4 serves in the process. Ćorić is a better player than the Egyptian and Baena's form is far from good. I think the Croatian play has a good chance to win. After all, his maximum is much better than the Spaniard's and he's only 17 years old. When he reaches Baena's age, Borna shouldbe an ATP player. Details

Croatia have so far played 8 games, counting the preparations and the game against Turkey. During those 8 games, they have gone over 76.5 points on only one occasion, against a weird American selection in France. After that, they haven't gone over 67 in any of the 5 games, even after overtime against Turkey when they got 58 in regular time. Today's game is very important for both teams as they have a chance to carry over the points into the next round and I expect Croatia to struggle against Italy's pressure, as what Marinelli and Mavra have shown against Turkey, really makes me doubt their control of the ball. The Italians also have their limitations and Croatia's defense can control them. I still get the impression this Croatian team is incapable of an 80-point match and that's why I will try an under here. Details

In the first round, Delbonis did exactly what I expected. He fought for every point and broke Monaco down, and he's an experienced dirtballer. Becker is experienced, but he's not too good on this surface. He beat Paire but only after the Frenchman imploded. He didn't tank the match but he didn't seem too motivated to stay in rainy Germany. After all, he's the player who said Wimbledon isn't any good. Back to Becker - that was his second ATP win on clay in last 4 years. Logically, he didn't have too many matches on it. The Argentine has everything - the power in his strokes, the serve and he relies on his results on clay. I believe he timed his form for these weeks as he's defending the final next week. He should handle Becker in two sets without too much trouble. Details

When Kohlschreiber is happy with his performance, so am I. Confidence is crucial for him as he wants to be a Top 20 player, at the very least. What has marked his performances lately are good matches in home tournaments. He is defending the final here, he won at Dusseldorf and missed a huge chance to reach the finals in Halle. Struff is in a crisis, he expected a lot from grass season and played very poorly, especially on return. In three defeats, he got only 1 break. I expect Philipp to be in a good mood and I think he should also have the advantage in terms of his experience. They're on completely different levels at the moment and I see a convincing win for Kohlschreiber here. Details