PartyBets Blog

Spain – The Monday night La Liga action features Valencia (1.57), a side looking to consolidate their top three position, taking on Racing Santander (6.00), a side looking to pull themselves away from the bottom three.

Racing Santander are without a win in the league since late January when they defeated Sporting Gijon away from home. This slump in form has seen them drop down to 17th in the league and five points off the relegation zone. They have scored just one goal in the previous five league matches and are in desperate need of a win.

This season the battle for the remaining Champions League places is a real thriller with five clubs all competing for just two spaces. Valencia are leading the pack as they sit in third place and three points ahead of surprise package Mallorca in fourth place. Valencia have one of the deadliest strikers in the game in the form of David Villa and he will be a real threat as usual on Monday night. He is 4.00 to score the first goal.

The previous five meetings between these two sides sees Valencia edge it with two wins, a draw, and a defeat. However, the previous three meetings at Estadio de Mestalla have seen Racing win two and draw one, making themselves something of a bogey side when travelling to Valencia.

Suspensions and injuries have hit Valencia in the run up to this game and a key absentee will be Argentine midfielder Ever Banega who has been pulling the strings in the centre of the park this season. Racing also has players missing through injury and suspension but not to the same degree as los Che.

Valencia should still have what it takes to dispense of Racing Santander and earn a first home win over them since 2004. Back Valencia to win and under 2.5 goals in the match at 2.80.

Tom La Liga Racing Santander, Valencia

Italy – Oddly, there was little change in any positions in Serie A this weekend. With both the top teams drawing 0-0 Inter Milan remain 4 points ahead of local rival’s AC Milan, the latter playing third place Roma.

Juventus on the other hand have found a new urgency as well as winning ways, although it is probably too late for them this season.

Visiting Fiorentina the side managed to grab the opportunity presented to them and beat the Florence team 2-1. Diego led the scoring after just 2 minutes for Juventus, followed just past the half hour with a goal by Fiorentina’s Marchionni.

The second half was a tussle between these two great sides, but Juventus broke the deadlock on the 68th minute with a goal by Grosso.  Strangely, for Italian football, the match only had 3 bookings, namely Sissoko (41st minute), Zebina (56th minute) and Marchisio (85th minute).

This contrasts with the mid table match between Cagliari and Catania, which from all accounts was a tempestuous affair.   Drawing 2-2, Lazzari scored first for Cagliari after just nine minutes. Catania however scored on the half hour with a penalty from Mascari and was followed up quickly with another goal by Maxi Lopez on the 35th Minute.

Although going into half time 2-1 up, two of Catania’s players were booked including the penalty taker Mascari.

Catania could be forgiven for thinking they could win this game but Cagliari weren’t going to let that happen if they could help it. With a goal on the 74th minute, Cossu equalised for the home side. Unfortunately for Cossu, he was booked a minute later.  The second half also saw three Cagliari players booked and a further 2 for Catania.

Despite drawing, Catania’s coach, Sinisa Mihajlovic was happy. He told RaiSport “The glass is half full. We were missing a bit of sporting malice today but this is still an excellent result.”

He continued: “To bring home a point from a place as tricky as Cagliari is no mean feat. I am convinced that we will avoid the drop regardless of how other teams fare with their results. We are preparing extremely well each week and the team is playing with the right mentality to stay in this division.”

2010 Serie A Betting Odds

Inter Milan 1.25

AC Milan 4.00

Roma 15.00

Tom Serie A AC Milan, Inter Milan, Roma

England – There was considerable variety in the four FA Cup Finals over the weekend- one rip-roaring comeback, one comfortable home win, a hard-fought draw and an unlikely story of hope.

Aston Villa provided the comeback story and kept alive their hopes of making two Wembley finals in the same season. Things looked bleak at the break when they trailed Reading 2-0 and the Royals more than deserved their advantage.

The Premiership side were sluggish in the first half- possibly a reaction to their Carling Cup Final defeat- but Martin O’Neill must have laid into his team at half time because they blitzed Reading in the first ten minutes of the second period.

Ashley Young began the fightback but Norwegian striker John Carew was the hero as he netted twice, once with his head and a delightful flicked second. Villa’s resurgence came from players busting a gut to get into good positions and then delivering quality balls into the box.

Reading battled bravely for an equaliser but Carew snuffed out their challenge when he won, and then converted, a late penalty to round off the scoring. Not surprisingly, the big striker won the Man of the Match award.

Terry Grabs The Headlines Once Again

Their semi-final opposition will be Chelsea who did enough to see off Stoke City at Stamford Bridge. Ex-England captain John Terry scored the second from a set-piece and the holders look determined to hold on to their trophy.

The hard fought draw came at Craven Cottage on Saturday when Fulham and Tottenham cancelled each other out. Both clubs have other fixtures pressing- Spurs chasing fourth in the league and Fulham talking on Juventus in the Europa League – so there was no shortage of effort to finish the tie at the first attempt.

The absence of Jermain Defoe for most of the game with a slight hamstring problem curtailed the potency of Spurs attack, while Bobby Zamora was well marshalled by the visitors. Fulham missed their suspended skipper Danny Murphy, who creates a lot from their midfield.

The winner of the replay plays Portsmouth, who continue to defy the odds even as the club plunges into a financial morass. Birmingham City held them for the first half but two Freddie Picquionne strikes kept the Pompey dream alive, plus a big slice of luck when Liam Ridgewell’s goal was chalked off even though it clearly crossed the line.

FA Cup Semi-Final Draw (Ties to be played 10/11 April)

Aston Villa V Chelsea

Fulham/Tottenham V Portsmouth

Not surprisingly Chelsea have been instilled as the favourites to win this year’s FA Cup.  Here are the odds as we get down to the last five teams;

Chelsea 1.95

Tottenham 3.50

Aston Villa 5.00

Fulham 13.00

Portsmouth 15.00

Tom FA Cup aston villa, chelsea, fulham, Tottenham

Spain – Real Madrid (1.36) will be aiming to make it seven wins in a row when they host Sevilla (8.25) on Saturday, one of the sides who have defeated Los Galacticos this season.

Real Madrid’s 5-1 demolition of Tenerife last week maintained the pressure on Barcelona at the top of La Liga (Madrid are 2.10 to win the league). After a slow start to the season, the Galacticos of los Blancos are gradually maturing and a win over of Sevilla will be needed to keep up the chase as Barcelona look likely to win the earlier kick off with Almeria.

Xabi Alonso has told the press ahead of the clash with Sevilla that it will be a different Madrid who take to the pitch than the side which lost 2-1 to Sevilla earlier in the season.  “We had just started playing together when we first faced Sevilla this season but we are more mature now,” he told a press conference.

Sevilla inflicted the first defeat of the season on Real Madrid, but they will have their work cut out to repeat a similar score this time around as Christiano Ronaldo will be involved this time around. Ronaldo has been in fine form and currently has 13 goals to his name this season; he is available at 4.00 to open the scoring.

The corresponding fixture last season saw Sevilla win a thrilling encounter 4-3 so Madrid have every reason to be wary of their opponents this weekend. It looks almost certain that Barcelona will take the three points from their game with Almeria before this match kicks off, so Madrid will be going into this game with some pressure. Sevilla however have nothing to lose.

Both sides have players capable of scoring goals, so a high scoring encounter could be on the cards. Madrid have scored 11 goals in their last 2 games, and could be set for another goal-fest with Ronaldo and Kaka both in fine form.

Real Madrid will look to keep it tight and snuff the threat from Sevilla’s dangerous strikers – a job Athletic Bilbao completed last week in a 0-0 draw. Back Real Madrid to win 2-0 which is available at 6.00 with PartyBets.com.

Tom La Liga real madrid, Sevilla