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Sociedad are without their best player today, but I still don't think this is a 50-50 match as the odds would suggest. It's true that Real's game is unpredictable, and they can defeat the best teams, but also lose to the weakest. I think the advantage should also go with the fact that this is a typical home team. True, the home team are playing without Vela, but still have good offensive solutions, while the guests are weakened with two standard starters not playing (Radoja and Orellana). Celta finally defeated someone, but we can't ignore the long crisis they had, while Real did win in their last home match. I believe Real will celebrate today, but considering that this team managed to create a few unpleasant surprises, and the odds are really good, I'll go for a safe bet of a win without a tie for the home team. Details

The odds at 1.8+ for handicap in a game where the favorite are at 1.25 don't seem valuable, regardless of teams characteristics. But when it Porto against a team that was promoted this season, we need to take it. Porto finished all of their last 9 league wins with a handicap, scoring more than 3 goals in 8 of them. That means we can go with some other, better payed option here. Moreirense are in decline, miss five key players - the entire midfield, the most important center back, and a right back. Porto are complete, productive, and need only their normal performance for another successful win. Details

A duel between two teams not known for being aggressive, and especially true today when neither have to get a result. The number of yellow cards per game is 2.48 for Montpellier, and 2.35 for Lille. There were none in the duel they played in September. Sebastian Moreira is the referee, he gives 3.06 per game this season. Details

Second championship round and this is a game of great importance with both teams expecting points that are very important in the race for avoiding relegation. It's another reason for good approach on both sides. There are a few more reasons to believe in games under 50 goals.

Both teams are among the Top 3 most efficient teams in Germany, Bietigheim are second worst offense, Bad Wildungen third. They average around 24 goals per game combined. Bietigheim depend on zone 6-0 defense, while everything with home team depends on a single player - Laura Vasilescu. She scored a total of 150 goals, which is a third of all their goals in the season. Coach has around 12 players on the list, while Bietigheim have only 10. The reason are injury-struggles of key players. Visitors won the match with Cella after a substitute scored in the last seconds. First head to head ended with 44 goals. We can expect a lot more tension today, a clash of tactical plans, and limited rosters on both sides. I expect another match similar to the first one, at least when it comes to the number of goals. Details

Dalfsen, a team that won quite a few Dutch championship, are set to meet French defending champions Fleuri Loiret in Cup Winners Cup first match. When comparing the teams, the French have the upper hand since Dalfsen have not proper competition in the Netherlands for years now. The French league is two levels above the Dutch championship, in which Fluery play the role of favorite for the title. After 14 rounds, they have 11 wins, two draws, and only one defeat. Great number of players and individual experience is another advantage for the french team. The team has a lot of international players, mostly French and Spanish, with one of top three Brazilian goal keepers. The Dutch team are way too young this season. The changed 9 players ahead of it, with most of the team being made of young Dutch players under 20. They lost the semifinal at the Champions League qualifying tournament to Ferencvaros, and last year lost twice to Danish teams convincingly in the same type of matches, Holstebro (30-38) and Viborg (12-33). To summarize, Fleury are building a team that should leave a mark in CL next season and the Dutch youngsters cannot cope with that at the moment. I expect the French team to settled things in the firs leg game. Details

Two slips in Germany are too big failures for Samsonenko's expensive project. The players are under great pressure to win today, but the win should be convincing to get Vardar back into places they were aiming at ahead of Champions League. They want to at least get in the Final counterpane, with the title being the true goal. What better rivals than Krim at this point. Visitors have limited offense, with two players leading the whole offense. And those two are well-know at Vardar. I don't think Pineau who joined Krim form Vardar and who is one of those two will be a great danger today. She out of shape and Vardar have good goal keepers capable of stopping her. Lekic and Penezic should finally get support from other at Vardar, the fans are expected to come and cheer them into a win, and Krim don't do well away. Vardar need to win and I think they will by some 5-10 goals. Details

MBC are on a 10-game losing run and coach Poropat wants team spirit as the focus of this game. They proved that any kind of fast-pace game leaves them with no chance. Visiting coach says that defenses are to decide this match. The goal is to strip the home team of their three-pointers and make this a very boring and slow-paced game. None of the three head-to-head matches of the season were offense-oriented, with none of them finishing with more than 150 points. MBC first won 68-67 home in preseason, then 97-83 away after two overtimes and 70-70 in regulation time. This will most likely not be an attractive game and improvements in defense is the best way to get out of crisis. Details

Encantada lost only the first two home matches (covering the handicap both times), and they concluded the first part of the championship with five consecutive home wins. Looking at the last season, they lost with a difference bigger than this one at home only in an irrelevant last match against Sagunto (-7), who were struggling to stay in the league, -6 against Aragon and Barcelona, who are a few levels above the rest of the league. They defeated Naturhouse at home in the last three seasons. The fact is that Naturhouse are stronger now, but the home team see their chance to continue the series and give a hard time to the second-placed team of the championship. Naturhouse are coming after a convincing defeat in Barcelona, and with lots of problems. The left back Thiagus (34 goals), pivot Javi Garcia (32 goals), and probably the right back Luis Felipe (42 goals) will miss the game. Also, the left wing Juanin Garcia (64 goals), and the important defensive player Garabaya are having injury issues. With all those difficulties, I doubt the guests will have to work hard to win. I hardly see a scenario where they can crush Cuenca with six or more goals difference. Details

Purely statistically, this margin is too high. Asseco play 149.8 points per game at home, Trefl 157.6 per away game. A high margin is set because of the very bad defensive game from Trefl lately, and that justifies it. But, duels between Asseco and Trefl are always more than just basketball, and we usually see tough game bordering with faults, and the offenses dominate. It doesn't look nice. In the last 20 duels, only three matches ended with over 160 points total. In the last seven duels, it was never over 148. In the first duel this season, Asseco won 77-65, and in the pre-season, Asseco won 72-57. They realized they have to change something in Trefl, and this whole week they've been talking about improving their defense. That's why they brought the back Bojan Popović and we can expect them to show it weren't just empty words. Asseco are extremely defensively oriented. In the home matches against better teams, all the duels ended with a very small number of total points (Stelmet 72-68, Koszalin 72-64, Slask 67-60…). Details

Skjern closed the first part of the season with four defeats, and if anyone could have used a break, it was coach Nørgaard and his team. They have plenty motives today. Markussen will be the best player in the rest of the season, I'm convinced. He was really disappointed and angry that Gudmundsson didn't take him to Doha. Søndergaard and Møllgaard played there, but not much, and there's no talk about fatigue. They practiced this whole week, and Skjern are ready for this derby. This result is much more important for them than Kolding who are securely keeping the top. Skjern are fighting for the points in the play-off (first four). Kolding celebrated in Skjern only once in the last six away matches, and the first match this season was intense, when Kolding won 30-27. But, things are much different now. Kolding are coming without the starting left wing Dolk, an important back Lasse Andersson, and the key player Kim Andersson ended the WC with an injury, missed the last two matches, and nobody dared to say that he'll play today, let alone be himself. Without Kim, their back line is only Spellerberg and Karlsson, and whatever way you look at it, it's not enough to win in Skjern. Kolding's got top defense with Hvidt, Laen and Jørgensen, but so do Skjern. I expect a match where one ball will decide, and you have to take the handicap offered for Skjern. Now is the ideal moment to bet against KIF. Details

Slovakia are a host of this tournament, and today's so-called final will be played in a full arena in Banska Bystrica, where the Slovaks feel great and want to prove themselves. Their team had problems lately, so this tournament served to boost their self-confidence, and I don't doubt they'll go for all today. They're playing with an experienced and strong team here, made up from KHL players and players who play the Czech league, they've got lots of talent, but also experience, unlike the Swiss. Switzerland came here with young players, 21, 22-year-olds, and for eight of them, yesterday was the first time they played for the national team. They only have a handful of famous names, like Pestoni, but even he's not the best that Switzerland could have brought here. The Swiss have an obvious goal here - to test young players from the national league. They defeated Germany yesterday, but their game wasn't as brilliant as the result would suggest, and they were convincingly outshot by the end. The Slovaks had some rest yesterday, the Swiss played, so that's another advantage on the tournament that is set for the Slovaks. The quality and experience is far on their side, and add to that great audience, filled up arena, and bigger motive, this becomes a very good bet. Details

Despite their game averaging at only 145 points, Rethymno are still among the fastest teams in the league, especially in transition. There are a few teams in the league whose defenses lower the averages significantly but when meeting faster-paced teams, Rethymno were very efficient. Skortopoulos's team is all about tough defense, rebounding, and transition leading into easy shots. With Schaftenaar back, Rethymno should be ablet o get their style back. They are on a 4-game losing run and expect reposnse today because they're the better team. Dramas opened the season with a very young team, played less productive games, but as they acquired new players, the offense got more productive. Their opponents never scored less than this margin in the last 8 games. They conceded at least 80 in 5 games and I don't think they'll be able to keep Rethymno under 70 or less points. Visitors scored 72 in the first h2h. Dramas play a different game now and I expect a more efficient game. Visitors scored at least 77 in the 6 h2h games over the past three seasons, with 79, 80, and 82 here. Details

AEK's ambition runs high and they have good rhythm, but I don't think they're task here will be easy. Panonios need to win, the new coach just took over and might bring the necessary response. Apart for the games from the start of the season in which Panioinons were getting the team together, nobody had it easy here. Home team limited their last 4 opponents to 73 or less points, including the top teams like Olympiacos (73), Aris (65) and PAOK (65). AEK, on the other hand, play a more efficient game, but went over this margin in only 2 out of 7 away games with fast paced Trikala (83) and in the nerve-wrecking finish with Kifisia (80). Panonios scored 77 home in the first head-to-head, but both teams changed a lot since. I expect a great fight and visitors to score 70-75 points max. New coach Hugaz insists on better defense and discipline which, combined with the atmosphere, could result in a very tough game. Details

Venus is in an excellent form, no problems with injuries, she's very motivated, and progressed a lot in her game. She took the Auckland title at the beginning of this season, and got a decent result at the Australian Open. Paula had a very bad year, and by the end of the last year, she had problems with injuries. Her start this season wasn't that bad, but she lost convincingly to Larsson and Radwanska, which realistically speaking, she shouldn't have. Their last duel ended with a win for Venus in straigth sets (the offered handicap would pass), but Paula waas in a better form, and Venus was pretty relaxed. Paula will have lots of respect coming to this game, and regardless of her aggressiveness, that will make her game suffer. Venus shouldn't have problems with Paula despite having to adjust to a different court, especially if she continues playing aggressively and sending deep hits. All in all, Venus is completely superior here, she's in the mental and physical form that she didn't have for a long time, and Paula is slowly falling apart, so Venus should cover the offered handicap. Details

I think Fakel are really underestimated today, especially since Loko wasn't that brilliant lately. In a way, this will be a revue match for Loko, they have theoretical chance for the third place, and the teams behind them can hardly catch up with them. Also, they have a Champions League match against Tomis in four days, and judging by the previous experience, they never did a 100% in league champions before the European challenges. The guests proved to be a team with a bright future, but present, too, they're playing great volleyball and will have their say today. I can't say that the handicap is missed, even though there are factors pointing to that, but I'm sure that the Novy Urengoy guys' set can't be paid with more than @1.70. Details

I don't see why Germany is so favored here. They defeated Australia in as guests last year, but things are different now. Most of all, it's about the pressure the national press created. The second important thing is all four Germans' games at the beginning of the season, especially the first two racquets. Kerber's game don't justify her reputation, I think she even made a step back in her career, and struggled in every match since the season started. Petkovic has a series of three defeats, and she herself is confused with those results, which then influences her psyche - something that's crucial in singles. Stosur didn't play well in Australia for years, and that's why we have to expect a good reaction here. She knows they have a strong team, and they can get even for the last year's defeat, and also, Gajdosova is saying she enjoys playing. Gajdosova defeated Petkovic recently, has good experiences against Kerber, and Storus defeated Petkovic, and got one defeat (Australia - pressure), while she's got positive experiences against Kerber, too. She got two wins and a defeat (Australia again). Nobody can convince me right now that Germany, who seem like a defeated army right now, can be stronger than Australia. The national audience's pressure always had its influence, and Kerber is far from a top level. Petkovic isn't her best mentally, and Stosur and Gajdosova can definitely take advantage of that. Details

Kerber at 1.25, 1.30 in these moments? Silly to say the least. The German made no progress but probably even took a step back early this season. She is too passive, makes too many mistakes, lacks rhythm, struggles with serving. The pressure by the German public will be huge here and that's not good either. Gajdosova is enjoying tennis again, she's doing well early in the season, with three defeats to Top 6 players not being a big deal. She beat Kerber with the second set bagel last season and has two more h2h wins. She cannot be this big an underdog here. I know full-well what Gajdosova can do, she doesn't lack confidence and I think the match against Kerber will be much closer than bookies suggest. Gajdosova has everything to make it close, Kerber is not good, and I wouldn't even be surprised by Gajdosova's win. Handicap is very very good to be on the safe side. Details