HIFK vs KuPS
Finland Veikkausliiga
Date: Monday, 17th July 2017
Kick-off at 16:30 UK/ 17:30 CET
Venue: Telia 5G-Areena (Helsinki).
HIFK
Team News
Mika Vayrynen returned to action against RoPS last weekend, and is likely to remain in midfield after helping HIFK to a 2-2 draw. Nnaemeke Anyamele also returned for that game, in place of Kim Raimi at the back, and Tomi Maanoja was back in goal.
Key Players
Veteran striker Mikael Forssell scored his fourth goal in the season in the draw at RoPS last time out, while fellow forward Pekka Sihvola has now scored five.
Team Form
HIFK head into this fixture on the back of three away games, from which they took four points courtesy of a 3-0 win at JJK and 2-2 draw at RoPS, either side of a 4-1 defeat at Lahti. Prior to that, however, they lost both of their two most recent home games 2-0, to SJK and PS Kemi.
HIFK Predicted Starting Line-up
Expected Line-up: 4-3-1-2
KuPS
Team News
KuPS have shuffled their pack of late, and having struck upon a winning formula against PS Kemi last weekend, will be tempted to stick with the same team. Top scorer Gbolahan Salami missed that game, however, and is pushing for a recall in place of Ats Purje up front.
Key Players
Gbolahan Salami will look to bag his tenth goal of the season up front, while wingers Saku Savolainen and Ilmari Niskanen are KuPS’ creative options on the wings.
Team Form
After six games without a win (three draws, three defeats), KuPS returned to winning ways by putting three past PS Kemi last weekend. Their most recent away game saw them lose 1-0 at Ilves, following a 1-1 at Inter Turku prior to that.
KuPS Predicted Starting Line-up
Expected Line-up: 4-4-1-1
HIFK vs KuPS: Head-to-head
The teams have already met once this season; in the month of May, when KuPS edged out a narrow 2-1 win in front of their home fans. The result put KuPS on a three match winning run against HIFK.
Also, HIFK managed to win just once in the last 7 Finnish Veikkausliiga meetings against KuPS.
HIFK vs KuPS: Prediction
HIFK are in an extremely poor shape and their home record this season is nothing to write about. Meanwhile, KuPS are coming after restoring some confidence back and they do tend to perform better in away games. With an excellent h2h record in the back, KuPS are poised to get all three points from this encounter.
HIFK vs KuPS: Bet Tips
FT – Away team to win at 2.50 odds at Bet365.
A decent alternate can be found in backing the visitors to score at least twice here. Over 1.5 team goals for KuPS is priced at 2.62 odds with Bet365.
