Australian League Football
Another reasonable night with Spartak Moscow hanging on to beat Bayer
Leverkusen 2-1 in their UEFA Cup group clash.
But today is a new challenge and with little football on offer I have had
a look into the Austrian league for a tie that could be worth an
investment in.
LASK Linz who are in second place in the 10 team league 1 point behind
leaders Austria Vienna take on Red Bull Salzburg who are in 5th.
Red Bull are sponsored by the company behind the drink of the same name
and are the money team in Austria but this season the have been extremely
disappointing. They have a squad that includes the likes of Sasa Ilic,
Niko Kovac, Vratislav Lokevenc and Alex Zickler all international players
but for some reason cannot gel as a team.
They won the league last season under the leadership of director of
football Giovanni Trappatoni and ex-German captain Lothar Matthaus but the
latter left the club in June amidst claims of a clash of personalities
between the two, since then the club has under performed.
LASK so far this season have a home record of won 6 drawn 2 and lost 1
scoring 18 and conceding 6 with the only defeat being a 2-0 reverse to 3rd
placed Mattersburg back in August, and their form in the last 6 has been
won 2 drawn 3 lost 1 scored 15 and conceding 10 with 11 of those 15 goals
scored coming in their last 3 home league fixtures.
Red Bull on the other hand have yet to pick up a win on the road in the
league in 9 attempts so far with 4 draws and 5 defeats to go with their 6
goals scored and 15 conceded., their last 3 away games have been lost with
an aggregate score of 2 goals scored and 9 conceded.
The defeats have come at Wacker Innsbruck 3-1, SV Reid 2-0 and 4-1 in an
earlier clash with LASK in October so confidence will not be high.
As the head to head figures show LASK`s 4-1 victory was the first in 5
home games played against Red Bull but there has been a 6 year gap in
league fixtures in that time as LASK were only promoted to the top
division this season.
Oct 7, 07 T-Mobile Bun... LASK Linz 4 - 1 RB Salzburg
Jul 28, 07 T-Mobile Bun... RB Salzburg 2 - 1 LASK Linz
Apr 14, 01 T-Mobile Bun... RB Salzburg 3 - 1 LASK Linz
Nov 10, 00 T-Mobile Bun... LASK Linz 1 - 1 RB Salzburg
Sep 23, 00 T-Mobile Bun... RB Salzburg 4 - 1 LASK Linz
Jul 12, 00 T-Mobile Bun... LASK Linz 0 - 2 RB Salzburg
May 13, 00 T-Mobile Bun... LASK Linz 1 - 1 RB Salzburg
Mar 11, 00 T-Mobile Bun... RB Salzburg 1 - 2 LASK Linz
Oct 2, 99 T-Mobile Bun... LASK Linz 2 - 4 RB Salzburg
Jul 17, 99 T-Mobile Bun... RB Salzburg 2 - 1 LASK Linz
So I am going for a LASK win tonight which is currently priced at 6/4 with
several bookmakers and consider the form of the two teams involved is
slightly on the generous side in my opinion.
As ever good luck,
Silverfox.
