2 weeks Ago By Bruce Archer
The weekend is looming large and there's lots of Friday football action from across Europe's top league to bring us there. The Premier League kicks off with what is sure to be a feisty East Midlands derby as Leicester City host Nottingham Forest. There's also action from the Championship, Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Serie A and La Liga on a busy evening and our three best bets for Friday's football are below.
GET £30 IN FREE BETS WITH TALKSPORT BET Udinese to beat Cagliari @ 11/10 Serie A action gets Friday evening up and running and Udinese will know that victory over visiting Cagliari can propel them – at least temporarily – into the top four in the Italian top flight. Indeed, victory for Kosta Runjaic and the Bianconeri here would hoist them from eighth to fourth. They have lost three of their last four games in Serie A but those reverses came against Roma and both Milan clubs.
Inter edged them only 3-2 at the Stadio Friuli, while AC Milan only survived with a 1-0 win at the San Siro last weekend after Christian Kabasele's stoppage-time leveller was chalked off following a lengthy VAR review. Aside from that loss to the champions, Udinese have picked up three wins from three on their own patch. They are unbeaten in five games against Cagliari in regulation 90 minutes and can halt the mini-upsurge in form that has brought two wins and a draw in Davide Nicola's side’s last three league games.
Espanyol vs Sevilla BTTS in the first half @ 19/5 La Liga action comes from the RCDE Stadium as Espanyol host Sevilla. The visitors were hit for five by Barcelona on Sunday and are straight back to the Catalan capital again. Sevilla have now conceded 10 first-half goals in their last eight away league games and some value could be bad in backing both teams to find the net in the first 45 minutes on Friday.
Villarreal, Alaves and Rayo Vallecano have all scored first goals at this venue from Espanyol's five home La Liga games so far, though the Periquitos have still managed to collect nine points from that sequence of games. Both of last season's meetings ended 3-2 to Sevilla, with both teams netting first-half goals in each instance. Leicester and Nottingham Forest to draw 2-2 @ 12/1 Honours even in the East Midlands derby.
That is quite literally how these bitter rivals stand ahead of the 110th edition, with 41 wins apiece and 27 stalemates. Three of their last eight meetings have ended all square and two of those draws have witnessed four goals shared. Goals are commonplace in this fixture, with five of the last seven meetings yielding four or more.
Leicester have been moments from a 2-2 draw in two of their last three games, getting a 98th-minute winner at Southampton last time and conceding two stoppage time goals in the 4-2 loss at Arsenal in late September. Three of Forest's last six games have ended in stalemate, including a 2-2 with Brighton last month. Leicester have won just one of the last four clashes with Forest at the King Power Stadium and an entertaining stalemate is some decent value here.
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