5 Tips for Friday’s Action - 15/10/21

The first tip here comes from the Hawthorns, where promotion-chasing West Bromwich Albion go head to head with local rivals Birmingham City in a Black Country derby. Valerien Ismael’s side currently sit in second place, whilst Lee Bowyer’s Birmingham are 16th in the league standings.

The Baggies have won two of their last three league fixtures, having narrowly defeated QPR 2-1 and Cardiff City 4-0, with Karlan Grant, Curtis Nelson (own goal), Alex Mowatt and Matt Phillips all getting on the scoresheet at the Cardiff City Stadium. Their last league match did finish in a 1-0 defeat to Stoke City, which was the Baggies first league defeat of the season after 11 matches.

Birmingham haven’t won a game since 10th September which was a 2-0 home victory versus Derby County. Since then, the Blues have suffered some heavy defeats, losing 4-1 and 3-0 to Fulham and Peterborough, before drawing 0-0 against Preston North End, and then losing 2-0 and 3-0 to QPR and Nottingham Forest.

Three of West Brom’s six victories this season have been via the score range of 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 having scored 20 and conceded nine times in 11 matches in the Championship.

Brazil host Uruguay in the early hours of Friday morning in the South American World Cup qualifiers for Qatar 2022.

Tite’s side are currently top of the qualifying group having won nine and drawn one of their 10 qualifiers, seem them sit on 28 points, 12 more than their visitors Uruguay who are in a close battle to try and qualify for the World Cup in fourth place, just one point ahead of Colombia in fifth.

Brazil drew 0-0 last time out away at Colombia, but, in their other international match in October, they defeated Venezuela 3-1, thanks to three goals in the last 19 minutes of the match by Marquinhos, Gabriel Barbosa and Antony having fallen behind to a Eric Ramirez strike after just 11 minutes.
The visitors are yet to score in this current international break, having drawn 0-0 against Colombia and lost 3-0 to Argentina as goals by Lionel Messi, Rodrigo De Paul and Lautauro Martinez condemned Oscar Tabarez’s side to defeat.

The hosts scoring record in qualifying has been decent, hitting the back of the net 22 times in 10 matches, whilst only conceding three times, seeing them win nine matches by the score range of 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 since November last year. The last meeting between these two sides also finished in a 2-0 victory for Brazil via Arthur and Richarlison strikes.

Burton Albion face Morecambe at the Pirelli Stadium in League One’s only match on Friday, with both of these sides looking to make a push towards the playoff places.

The Brewers come into this game in 10th place having scored 11 and conceded 14 goals in 12 league matches, with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s men winning just one of their last five, which came via a 2-1 scoreline at home to Portsmouth late last month, thanks to goals by Tom O’Connor and Daniel Jebbison. Their last three matches across all competitions have resulted in a 1-1 draw with AFC Wimbledon, before being beaten 4-2 and 2-1 by Aston Villa’s Under 21s and Plymouth Argyle.

Morecambe have enjoyed a good start in their first-ever League One campaign, as they are 13th and have won two of their last five in the division, defeating Crewe Alexandra 3-1 and Lincoln City 2-0. Two of their more recent results typify their season though, as they drew 3-3 with Accrington Stanley and lost 4-3 away at Wycombe Wanderers last time out in the league, hence why they have scored 20, the second-highest tally in League One, but conceded 18 in 11.

Runaway Ligue 1 leaders PSG take on Angers at the Parc des Princes on Friday night with the hosts expecting to win with ease.

This game is a battle of first versus fourth, but, with the players that Mauricio Pochettino has at his disposal, the Parisians will expect to beat a side that has won just one of their last five in the division.

PSG are six points ahead of second in the table Lens having won eight of their nine opening matches, scoring 22 and conceding nine, of which for some of their early games, Pochettino fielded weakened sides due to some player’s international commitments across the summer.

The last time these two sides played each other, PSG hammered Angers 5-0 in the quarter-finals of the French Cup last April thanks to a Mauro Icard hattrick, as well as an own goal by Vincent Manceau and a Neymar strike.

The final game on this list of tips comes from the German Bundesliga where Hoffenheim face FC Koln at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena.

At present, Hoffenheim are 11th in the table with just eight points from seven games, with one with in their last five matches, which came against Wolfsburg in a 3-1 home victory at the end of last month. Their other results in this run include a 3-2 loss away at Borrusia Dortmund, as well as 2-0 and 3-1 defeats to Mainz and Stuttgart and a 0-0 draw with Arminia Bielefeld.

Meanwhile, Koln are seventh with 12 points to their name and have won two of their last five, whilst drawing the other three games, beating Greuther Furth and VFL Bochum 3-1 and 2-1, whilst earning draws via 1-1 scorelines against the likes of RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt and Freiburg.