What Were The Odds Of That?
Jan 22nd, 2013 - Posted by EdMalyon in Football
Writer. 23. Mainly DailyMirror & Mirror Football but also Guardian Sport, ESPNFC and Betfair Sports. Surname rhymes with Galleon.
Barcelona lose after leading 2-0 with Real Sociedad listed at odds of 210 to 1, while Reading come from behind once again to snatch 3 points. Today on the blog Ed Malyon delivers his weekly wrap up of the weekend's football betting results.
An Irrelevant Non-Twist
Real Sociedad were 2-0 down to Barcelona and fearing the worst. Tito Vilanova’s side are every bit as ruthless as Pep Guardiola’s flowing Blaugrana, and if you look at La Liga results, they’re even better.
So what followed was a bit of a shock.
Assisted undoubtedly by the red card to Gerard Piqué, La Real fought back with verve and confidence. A goal before half-time was huge, the first of a brace for Chory Castro who has now scored four of his last five La Liga goals against the Catalans, and the momentum tilted fully their way after the former Manchester United man was dismissed.
Of course it is easy to get carried away with the dramatic nature of Imanol Agirretxe’s stoppage-time winner, but despite the way the San Sebastian club had turned over in-play odds of 210-1, the reality was that where it mattered – in the title race – the result meant very little.
Atlético’s victory this weekend means that they find themselves seven points off the top, and Real Madrid’s destruction of the league’s previous perennial third-placers Valencia was monstrous, but it all seems very futile. Very pointless. And while Barcelona emerged from this weekend pointless it doesn’t appear to be in doubt that they will romp to another Spanish title.
Royal Recovery
This weekend was not one of enormous shocks in the Premier League, and of all the results you wouldn’t consider a big surprise would be Newcastle losing another game in their current run of terrible form.
However, the Magpies were a fancied side this weekend, taken in as far as 1.55 to win with the returning Yoann Cabaye. Filled with confidence after last week’s remarkable turnaround against West Brom, Brian McDermott’s side refused to give up despite going behind, and although Adam Le Fondre seemed to score with his arm as his rotating full-body slide threatened to lose direction, the spirit shown late on made them worthy winners.
The Royals had been touching 5 to 1 pre-game, but have now won three of their last four and look like starting favourites for their next-but-one game, against Sunderland.
Such have been their struggles thus far that Reading have been favourites for only a single game all season, at home against Norwich, and they didn’t even manage to win it.
On their current form they might even match expectations for once, rather than occasionally exceeding them.
Back To Winning Ways
There were plenty of draws in Italy this weekend, meaning Juventus’ victory over Udinese on Saturday has rendered Round 21 of Serie A a brilliant one for them.
It was a fairly spectacular win, as Antonio Conte’s side put to one side their shoddy post-Christmas form to vanquish the Zebras, but Roma’s draw with Inter in the big game of the weekend, Lazio’s see-saw game in Palermo and Napoli stumbling in Florence mean that The Old Lady can start to breathe a bit more easily once again.
It was in the big game at the Olimpico where we found the best winner of the week, with a draw price averaging out at just short of 3 to 1, and Roma surprised us even further by scoring just their second goal in three games – an unrecognisable tally compared to their goalfests of late 2012.
Friday Night Lights
No huge shocks on the Bundesliga’s return this week, but a ripsnorter of a game between Schalke and Hannover to kick off the weekend as the Königsbaluen snuck a 5-4 victory.
Follow Ed on Twitter : @eaamalyon
You can read more of Ed's thoughts at The Mirror
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the draw between man u and spurs was no shocker and that goes for wba and aston villa. Of course, the draw between inter and roma was just right while we all knew that chelsea has the better of arsenal.