SATURDAY IN EUROPE: The Ultra previews Saturday’s Serie A / Bundesliga matches between NAPOLI v UDINESE and SCHALKE v BAYERN MUNICH both with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
NAPOLI V UDINESE
2pm It’s the last Saturday before we head to the winter World Cup on BETDAQ Betting Exchange! It’s a Cup weekend in Spain, so I’m happy to focus on Serie A and the Bundesliga where both the league leaders are in action. We kick off the day with Napoli hosting Udinese. I have remarked over the past few weeks how exciting the title race in Italy would be this season, but at the moment Napoli are running away with it! Everyone has been dropping points but Napoli have put together a run of ten wins in a row in Serie A – obviously they lost to Liverpool within that run in the Champions League but all they needed to do there was not lose 4-0 to top that Group. They have been playing some very good football this season, but they have also grinded out wins when not at their best which is equally a side of a good team. They have been putting in some highly impressive xG figures, but then have battled so hard away to the likes of AC Milan, Roma and Atalanta on this run too – each time winning by one goal. You have to tip your hat to them, and they now have a eight point lead at the top of the table. Win here and that will be a huge cushion when the teams return from the World Cup.
Serie A might be less impacted by the winter World Cup given Italy won’t be there, but it’s still something we’ve never had before, and there’s a huge amount of international stars in the league. I would expect points to be dropped by everyone at some stage, and an eight point gap might just be too big to close. You’d have to feel Napoli will have to blow up rather than anyone chase them down – things are so competitive it’s hard to see someone else putting ten wins in a row together! Udinese are a solid side, but you’d have to fancy Napoli to make it eleven wins in a row here and the market has them odds on favourites at 1.54. Udinese have been tough to beat of late – they’ve only actually lose once in their last 13 games – considering their other loss was the opening game of the season you can’t say that they have been easy to beat! They still sit outside the European spots because they have drawn so many games though, and although I feel Napoli will win here it’s hard to argue that they should be much shorter than they are. Both sides have been very entertaining this season, and I like Both Teams To Score at 1.75. Udinese have shown enough that they can find the net here, even if we see a 2-1 or 3-1 Napoli win.
The Ultra Says:
Two points win Both Teams To Score at 1.75 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/NapUdi
SCHALKE V BAYERN MUNICH
5.30pm Next we move to the Bundesliga to finish the evening as the German Champions are in action as Bayern Munich travel to take on Schalke. Just when it looked like we might have a title race in the Bundesliga this season, everyone has fallen away and Bayern now have a four point lead at the top of the table. I don’t think anyone really doubted that they would lift the title, but they had dropped more points than usual in the early part of the season. Alas, the progress has been rapid and the decline from the others just as rapid. They’ll go into the World Cup with a decent gap now, and I would suggest the title will be wrapped up early too. Unfortunately for Schalke, they have been heading in the wrong direction. At the start of the season it looked like they might have improved since getting relegated in the 2020/21 season but they are back to sitting bottom of the table now. Long-term readers will remember Schalke because we took them on a lot during lockdown – their xG figures were terrible and they were conceding a lot of goals each week which was nice for handicap betting. The market is fully expecting a comfortable Bayern win with the away side trading as short as 1.18 at the time of writing. This seems to be a case of how many goals will Bayern score rather than will they win.
Not only have Bayern stepped up a gear and put together a decent winning run, they have been banging in the goals for fun too. They hammered Werder Bremen 6-1 midweek, since drawing 2-2 with Dortmund they have scored 22 goals in five games in the Bundesliga, and that’s not even including they beat Barcelona 3-0 and Inter Milan 2-0 in that run too. Not only have they been scoring goals for fun, their xG figures have been very impressive too – they are dominating games and I’d expect them to see a lot of the ball here. Schalke broke a losing run midweek with a nice 1-0 win over Mainz but they are conceding an average xG of 1.7 this season, their actual is over 2 which means they are giving away sloppy goals too and you just can’t do that against Bayern. I’d expect a one way traffic win here for the Champions before we head to the World Cup, and the 2.02 on Bayern -2.5 goals looks worth a Max Bet.
The Ultra Says:
Five points win Bayern Munich -2.5 goals to beat Shclake at 2.02 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/SchBay
