SATURDAY IN EUROPE: The Ultra previews GENOA v INTER MILAN and VALENCIA v BARCELONA both with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
GENOA V INTER MILAN
5.30pm We have a cracking Saturday from Europe on BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE! After we kicked off the European domestic season with La Liga on Thursday night, Serie A joins the party as Champions Inter Milan open the season away to Genoa! We also have a cracking fixture from La Liga later with Valencia hosting Barcelona. Inter Milan ran away with the Serie A title last season by a whopping 19 points; it was all over very early and they will be clear favourites to make it back-to-back titles this season. One of the most remarkable stats from Serie A last season is that Napoli actually finished with the best attacking figure of the season. Inter Milan finished with an overall performance figure of +0.54 on xG while for Napoli it was +0.56! Only 0.02 in the difference, but Napoli finished a whopping 41 points behind Inter Milan! Obviously Napoli struggled so much to convert their chances last season and unless that changes it’s hard to see a major threat to Inter Milan this season in my opinion. AC Milan and Juventus look miles off winning a title, although they will likely be the ones in the title race along with Inter until we get to March or April again.
I think if you look around the major leagues from Europe and take Manchester City from the Premier League, Real Madrid from La Liga, Bayern Munich from the Bundesliga and Inter Milan from Serie A – I would actually be most confident on Inter Milan. Just because the opposite looks the weakest in my opinion. All eyes on how they perform here however, and they come into the game as the odds on favourites at 1.61 with Genoa 6.5 and the draw is 4.2 at the time of writing. I have to say I was very surprised to see Inter trading as high as 1.61 when I clicked into the market. Genoa finished in mid-table last season, but there were a huge amount of red flags in their performance levels. They finished the season with the third worst attacking figure in the league, their average xG created was only 1.18. They did create more than they conceded at home, so obviously home advantage is key for them, but Inter only dropped points four times away from home last season. I feel the 1.61 is too big here, and it’s worth a confident bet to start the Serie A season.
The Ultra Says:
Three points win Inter Milan to beat Genoa at 1.61 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/GnoInt
VALENCIA V BARCELONA
8.30pm We move over to La Liga to finish Saturday night as Valencia host Barcelona. It’s been another summer of chaos for Barcelona with them keen to sell players. They basically need to sell players to register new signings, it’s a story we’ve heard before with Barcelona. They were ten points behind Real Madrid last season, and given the issues off the field you just get the feeling that they really need a good start this season for morale. They performed very well last season – how could you knock an average xG created of 1.73 and average conceded of 1.21 but they were -0.13 behind Real Madrid when you put it all together. It’s a small margin, but as we know small margins can equal a lot of points. There are two key areas to focus on this season for them in my opinion – they keen to be more solid at the back to stop conceding sloppy goals. That got them into a lot of trouble last season, especially before Christmas. And then they need to improve their home form – obviously they are going through the stadium upgrade at the moment so things are difficult, but Barcelona losing three times at home isn’t good enough. They finished fourth in the home form table; the only side they should be behind is Real Madrid.
They come into this game as the odds on favourites at 1.79 with Valencia 5.1 and the draw is 4.0 at the time of writing. Valencia made a huge step forward into mid-table last season after being involved in the relegation battle in 2022/23; however all is not as it seems just looking at the league table! Looking at the under-lining numbers makes poor reading for Valencia – their average xG created was only 1.17 which was the joint-second worst attacking figure in La Liga. They were solid at the back, and that got them out of trouble but you’d have to worry about that attacking figure. I’m going to keep stakes small, it is the opening weekend of the season after all, but the 1.79 on Barcelona looks too big to ignore here. Valencia are there for the taking, and Barcelona can get the job done here. The away double looks a decent bet on Saturday!
The Ultra Says:
Two points win Barcelona to beat Valencia at 1.79 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE.
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/VlcBar
