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Steffen Schmidt - July 13, 2023
Ilves vs Mariehamn
Finnish Veikkausliiga
Date: 15 July 2023, Saturday
Kick-off at 13:00 UK / 14:00 CET
Venue: Ratinan Stadion (Tampere).
Ilves host Mariehamn on Saturday afternoon at Ratinan Stadion. The hosts have been in decent form lately with just one defeat in the last ten games across competitions.
They advanced to the Finnish Cup semifinal with a commanding 0-4 victory over lower-division VJS earlier this month.
They have shown another great defensive display in a goalless stalemate away at recently-promoted KTP seven days ago.
Ilves are 8th in the league table at the moment. They have been very tough to break down of late and they have generally been difficult to beat, especially on the home patch, throughout the season.
Toni Kalilo’s men have lost only one of seven league fixtures on the home patch this term, shipping eight goals along the way.
They will have a nice chance to extend this nice run on Saturday against the rock-bottomed Mariehamn.
The visitors have only won two games since the beginning of the season. They are especially struggling on travels with a record of one win, one draw, and four defeats in six away matches this term.
Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that Mariehamn have also improved their defensive form of late, keeping three successive clean sheets before a 1-1 stalemate to KuPS in the Finnish Cup quarterfinal.
The stalemate was enough to send Mariehamn to the semifinal of the competition, though, as Daniel Normen’s men claimed a win on penalties on the occasion.
Both Ilves and Mariehamn have drastically improved their defensive showings of late and we have all reasons to expect a tight and nervous affair without too many chances on either end between two bottom-half rivals on Saturday.
The Under 2.5 goals FT pick is our main betting option at the 1.66 odds. The braver punters can shoot for the goalless draw at the very attractive 8.00 odds.
