betprepare.com

A very important game for both teams: Vasteras can surprisingly join the battle for the top four spots if they win today, while a defeat could see Skovde surprisingly lose any chance of claiming one of those spots in the end. Both teams are defense-oriented, which is why I expect a less productive game. Johansson, top Skovde's shooter and their best attacking option, played EC with Sweden and I don't think she's had enough time to rest from the tournament and the celebrations that followed her team winning the bronze medal. Details

Guif played with a tough tempo even before their four starters got injured, and now it's again becoming prominent. They're running around. They even took Ricoh with such a game to 60 points, and they are a team who convincingly play with the least points in Elitserien. Today they're playing against Savehof who can follow their pace, as can they deal with the 4-2 defense of the away team. Still, the key thing is that Lucau had 19 saves in the first match, and today he won't be playing I doubt Edvardsson can do the same, and since there were 58 points in the first match despite Guif's excellent goalkeeper, over seems like a very realistic option. Details

The offense is the best defense of both teams. This especially goes for WW who are ready to score over 30 points against any team, and that could be the case today. That's primarily because they're very motivated after they signed the sponsorship contract with one powerful company - now it's on them to prove themselves. With such WW's approach the question of the winner should be solved in the first half-time, and then I expect the 60 point margin to burst through. The hosts are without the defensively important Furtmuller, which is an additional plus to the over, as is the fact that no one is writing anything about Dukic's injury, so he should also contribute in the offense. Details

Portes chose very clever tactics for the Netherlands game. He was resting Lacrabere as much as possible - she played offense almost exclusively to take 12 shots and score 4 goals. It was on the margin, but could have gotten over if she didn't miss that seven-meter throw. I expect her to spend much more time in the game today because this is an important match for France for the upcoming WC and Olympic games. Lacrabere is the player who did best in the key French games here to score 6 goals against Serbia, 7 against Montenegro and 10 against Sweden. She recorded only 3 against Germany after starting with 0-for-4. It was a match in which she struggled with motivation, which should not be the case today, especially with the Papp Arena packed with spectators. I think Lacrabere will create a lot of trouble for the home team. Details

The Netherlands-Montenegro game ended with 58 goals yesterday, which is why I cannot understand this margin. Adzic's team have one of the best defenses in the world, but the Dutch amazing transition was read for it. France are not as good in defense and I think that will make the Netherlands a very tough opponent, regardless of Polman playing or not. France played defense-oriented Germany to finish the game at 48 goals (the Germans tried as much as they normally do even though they didn't stand a chance of getting through to the semifinals). As the Dutch keep the pace faster, I expected this match to go over 50 goals. There are a few more reasons to believe that this game will end as an over, one of which being the fact the Dutch goal keepers do not belong to top European level. Also, Montenegro could play an important role if they beat Sweden today, thus disabling France from qualifying to semifinals. It's quite possible that will change a lot regarding this game, but the margin seems to be well off, which is why I'm going with higher stake. Details

If Guif were complete, this would be a realistic margin, but that's not the case today. They will host Ricoh who defeated them at home at the beginning of the season 26-23. It was a match where the goalie Forsberg, who is feared in Guif, had 10+2 saves, and as the season went on, he kept getting better. That should be a big problem for Guif today, as should Ricoh's defense in general, because the home team are without Freiman and Petersson who scored eight goals total in that match. And it's not easy to come up with eight goals against Ricoh, especially when the team "brain" Andersson is missing. The first goalie Laucau is out, and Edvarsson who's in the starting lineup against Ricoh today had the humble 2/14 in the first match. All in all, there's no element to suggest that Guif will crush their opponent today, actually, they'll be lucky if they manage to win at all, and continue their series of being undefeated at home. Details

As the guest coach says, I expect a chess match. That's what the first one was, with 43 goals. I don't think there'll be many more today because this is one of the most important games in the relegation battle. It'll be a duel of offensively limited teams who have about 25 goals per game this season, and there were even a few times when they fell apart, they could have scored more, if any kind of defense stuck it to the end. Another plus for this bet is that Kauffman should be ready, he's definitely the best scorer in the home team, a player who usually ends his games close to the double-digit numbers of goals scored. Without him in the right form, Aarau have lots of offensive problems. Stafa is bad in front of the opponent's goal no matter what. With this situation, the team unders seem to be very good options, too. Details

This text will be published soon. Details

I think the outcome of this game will come down to the Croatian side. They've done a very good preparation period, remain one of only a few teams unaffected by injuries and we expect them to take advantage of it in one of their favorite arenas - the one in Varazdin. Note that Croatia defeated Serbia by 11 points there and I don't find Sweden to be any better than Serbia. The Swedish team Savenhof played two draws with Lokomotiva from Croatia in the Champions League this season, and Savenhof's players make up most of the Swedish national squad. Besides Lokomotiva's players, Croatia has Penezić, Zebić, Tatari, Grubišić, Milanović-Litre...that's almost the entire stating line-up, except for right back Horvat. I have no doubt that Croatia are the better team here. That, together with the home arena, should result in a convincing win for Canjuga's team. Details

This is just a copy/paste of yesterday's logic. We have Portugal who played a 55 goal game against Turkey, and an even stronger opponent on teh other side. Austria under Muller play at a very strong pace, scored 41 against Israel, and no matter how poor an opponent the Israelis were, Austria showed they intend to keep up with the quick center and great transition scheme. As an added bonus, Frey's absence did not influence their scoring, while the Portuguese contribution is that in an even match against Turkey they did not lower the pace. A 55 goal margin should definitely be crossed in this match. Details

Portugal play a fast-paced game, which is why their last h2h games with this opponent ended at 74 and 61 goals. Compared to those matches, Turkey doesn't have the two Yilmazs, who are very important for defense. Ozel, the key offense figure is on the team. That is actually the key to this pick because Ozel brings the Turkish pace up. Vugrunov's players aren't as slow as they normally are when she's on the court. Portugal's defense isn't particularity tough, with the offense being the better segment of the team. I think 50 or even more goals are to be expected in such a game. Details

The first match h2h ended at 46 goals, but Pfadi have two very important defense players back on the team. It's an extremely important match as it can answer the question who will win this first part of the championship (if Pfadi win, they will get two points ahead of the competition). That is precisely what Otmar want to prevent from happening. A win would see them share the top spot in the table with Pfadi. Engels, who plays an important defense role, was send-off mid-first game, but that didn't cause any trouble in their defense performance. This match should not end with 11 goals more than the first one, especially since Engles will spend more time on the court today, and Bajram and Svajlen are back at Pfadi. If anything, I expect an even fiercer battle than in the first match. Details

Three Redbergslids and Skovde's last season's h2h games and the first match of this season ended at under 50 goals. The total number of goals was 49 three times and 48 once. I expect a similar outcome today because RIK play brilliant defense home. Only Hammarby managed to score 30 goals as they met early in the season, but that was the worst period for the Gpthenburg team. After that, no opponent managed to score more than 25 - it was 21, 23, and 22 in the last 3 home games against defending champions Alingsas and finalist Lugi. RIK's defense is great at the moment, having conceded only 19 goals to Savenhof last round. They failed to win despite and now want to make amends. On the other hand, Skovde finally managed to overcome a tough period to end their five-game losing run with a win over Hammarby. The defense conceded only 20 goals in that game, in which Skovde were better and tougher - just what coach Johannson wants them to be. The tactics should be the same today, especially with their coach pointing out that this is one of the most important games in the race for play-off. I don't expect a brilliant game, given it's importance - I expect a fierce fight and a match with around 50 goals, which is usual for these teams. Details

Malmo's pace has gotten much slower since they lost three important players a few rounds ago. I didn't go with any bets because of the opponents they were meeting the last five rounds - they were all teams with fast pace and their game with Malmo ended at 50, 46, 38, 45 and 47 goals. Only one of them went over this margin - the game with Drott, who play such a fast-pace game that no team in Elitserien can keep up. Malmo now meet a completely different opponent. Ricoh are completely focused on defending since their offense isn't doing very well. They ended at 27 goals last round as they met Lund and recorded only one shot off target. That was an attacking perfection for Ricoh they will probably not be able to repeat today. Malmo are very good in defense, and given the slow pace both teams play in, I expect an extremely unproductive game. I wonder if the 40-goal margin will be too high, with the 45-margin seeming sky-high. Details

Slovakia didn't lose against Ukraine who were better yesterday, but they defeated themselves. I don't think that will happen again because two defeats against really weakened opponents is something they don't need, not just before the championship, and especially not at home. So, I expect the Slovaks to be serious, and the Ukrainians should be inferior then. Managarova and Glibko are basically half the Ukrainian team, and they aren't here. So, I expect them to be defeated, and we will see a more realistic state than the one yesterday. Details

Their first match went over this margin (61), even with Portner working wonders at Kadetten's goal. He will hardly manage such a performance again as his saves were not a product of quality defending but a lack of focus by the attacker, who missed clear shots, as Kadetten's defense were up to conceding 40. What changed since? First of all, Kadetten pumped up their tempo, which should be even more pronounced with Richwien returning. We need not waste words on the tempo of the Polish - while Duršebajev is there, Kielce will run full throttle, especially at home, they are really a scoring machine in their own arena. With all that in mind, expect another scoring festival between these two teams. Details

This margin is the result of past rounds where Krems and Schwaz played against completely offense focused teams, WW and Fivers. The Viennese teams are the reasons the games with these teams went to 60 and 66 goals, while Krems and Schwaz were bystanders. Both of these teams are actually more defense focused and their prior duel this year that ended at 43 goals proves that. That is not the only such proof: in the past five seasons, these two played just two overs and nine unders at this margin. The unders were also much more decisive than the overs, as their matches went to exactly 60 twice, while the nine unders hide 40 goal matches. Past figures definitely favor under. In their match that stayed at 43 Krems also had their best offensive option, left winger Schopf. Today he is absent, and has been for some time, and when that is the case they simply must turn to defense, and they confirmed that prior to the match. Schwaz have the same situation regardless of their roster - they focus on defense as much as possible. Against the "raging" Fivers that was not possible, but against the much more calm Krems that is precisely what should happen. Judging along those lines, I don't see this even going close to 55, let alone near 60. Details

It's no coincidence that these teams finished over this margin ever time in the last two seasons. Their matches ended at 68, 61, 65 and 56 goals. The last h2h game took place early this season and could have easily ended with more than 60 goals. Key shooters at Drott Olsson and Zetterman each scored 3 goals out of 9 attempts from he field, while Gerndtsson had poor 1 hit from 8 attempts. Lund's goal keepers recorded 15 saves, Drott's only one less. I really don't see how this can happen again. With fast pace both teams prefer, I expect a match that will finish close to 60 or so goals. Details

Defense is sacred in Csoknyai's eyes, as we said in the last round of EHF cup, so we don't have to expect Balaton to run much. Even less so from Hard, they rely on their 6-0 zone, and that's what suits the Hungarians the least. Things are clear, two completely defensively oriented teams, so no way we can expect a match over 50 goals. Details

None of these teams have a rock solid defense, and they also play in a rough rhythm. Guif showed it against the firm Sonderjyske, I think they can against Huesca, especially because Ingolfsson is back in the rotation. Huesca are pretty good technically and I think this match definitely has the potential to go over 55 goals. Details