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Steffen Schmidt - July 5, 2023
HJK vs Lahti
Finnish Veikkausliiga
Date: 8 July 2023, Saturday
Kick-off at 12:00 UK / 13:00 CET
Venue: Bolt Arena (Helsinki).
HJK will be looking to return to winning ways on Saturday at noon when they welcome bottom-half strugglers Lahti in the first game of the weekend’s Veikkausliiga schedule.
The defending champions played back-to-back 1-1 draws in the last two league rounds and they now share the second place in the table with SJK as the two outfits sit three points shy of leaders KuPS.
HJK boast the best attacking record in the league with 24 goals bagged in 15 games so far in the campaign.
They also have the competition’s top scorer in their ranks as Serbian forward Bojan Radulovic notched his 10th goal of the season last weekend in a 1-1 stalemate at Honka.
Radulovic and company should have plenty of space in the final third on Saturday knowing that Lahti’s defensive line looked dreadful in the previous round’s loss to table-toppers KuPS.
Lahti allowed 17 shots, 10 of which went on target, in a 3-4 home defeat on the occasion. It was the second straight loss for the visitors who are second from bottom in the Veikkausliiga standings with only 2 wins in 12 outings.
Knowing that HJK have a fantastic home record with five wins and two draws in seven league fixtures at Bolt Arena, we have no other option but to expect a comprehensive victory for the hosts in Helsinki.
Lahti’s back line left too much space behind in the last weekend’s clash against KuPS and we expect them to face serious issues in attempts to keep hold of HJK’s stars on Saturday.
The main pick is HJK to win in -1.5 Asian Handicap at the 2.05 odds while we also like the 1.85 odds offered for the Over 2.5 goals FT bet knowing that the latest H2H clashes between these rivals have produced goal fests.
