5 Tips for Friday’s Football Action - 29/10/21

Ligue 1 leaders PSG take on the champions, Lille at the Parc des Princes, with the visitors struggling in 10th place.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side have hit somewhat a rocky patch in recent weeks form-wise, as they drew 0-0 away at Marseille last time out, as well as losing 2-0 at Rennes, either side of their narrow 2-1 home victory over Angers, where goals from Danilo Pereira and Kylian Mbappe sealed the Parisians all three points.

Meanwhile, Lille drew 1-1 with Brest last time out, having lost 1-0 away at Clermont and beaten Marseille 2-0 in early October, thanks to a brace from Canada international Jonathan David.

A player to focus on in this match is Mbappe, who has scored six goals and created eight across 14 appearances in all competitions, adding to the 42 goals he managed for the Parisians last season, seeing the 22-year-old former AS Monaco man priced at 11/4 to score first against Lille.

On Friday night, Seventh-Placed QPR take on a much improved Nottingham Forest at Loftus Road, with the hosts having an opportunity to go back into the playoff places.

Mark Warburton’s side have won three of their last five games in the Championship, having defeated the likes of Birmingham City 2-0, Preston North End 3-2 and Blackburn Rovers 1-0 on 19th October, thanks to an Illias Chair strike. However, the R’s did lose 2-1 away at Peterborough United last weekend, so they’ll be desperate to bounce back.

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest have started life well under Steve Cooper and have significantly climbed the table under the former Swansea manager, following four wins in their last five matches, beating Barnsley 3-1, Birmingham City 3-0, as well as both Blackpool and Bristol City by 2-1 scorelines via two second-half stoppage-time goals by Lyle Taylor in the latter. However, last time out, Forest were beaten 4-0 at home by Fulham in what was a disappointing display, Cooper will be expecting a reaction from his side at Loftus Road.

In the German Bundesliga, Hoffenheim host Hertha Berlin at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena in a clash of 11th versus 10th in the league standings.

The home side have scored 17 and conceded 15 in nine matches, whereas Hertha have leaked 21 and have found the back of the net six fewer times than their opponents.

Hoffenheim come into this match having won two of their last four matches against Wolfsburg 3-1 and FC Koln 5-0, where Ihlas Bebou (2), Christoph Baumgartner, Dennis Geiger and Stefan Posch all got on the scoresheet. In between these victories, Hoffenheim lost to the likes of Stuttgart 3-1 and Bayern Munich 4-0 with both matches being away from home.

Hertha are on a two-game win streak having won 1-0 at home to Borussia Monchengladbach and 2-1 away at Eintracht Frankfurt, but, prior to this they had lost 2-1 against Freiburg and 6-0 to RB Leipzig.

In the Turkish Super Lig, league leaders Trabzonspor host bottom of the table Caykur Rizespor at Senol Gunes Stadium with there already being a 20 points gap between the two after 10 games, with the home side on 24 points.

Trabzon have scored 20 goals and conceded nine times in their opening 10, whilst their opponents have leaked 22 and found the back of the net just eight times. The hosts also come into this match on the back of a three game winning run, having defeated the likes of Kayserispor 2-1, Fenerbahce 3-1 and Goztepe 1-0 with former Arsenal man Gervinho scoring in the latter mentioned match.

Caykur won their last game 2-1 at home to Kasimpasa, but, have shown their defensive frailties against both Istanbul Basaksehir and Galatasaray in 3-0 and 3-2 losses, as in the latter they conceded a 101st-minute goal to Gala who had 10 men following a red card for Berkan Kutlu; Rizespor also took the lead twice in this game due to a brace from Finland striker Joel Pohjanpalo.

The last tip on this list comes from the Irish Premier Division, where top of the table Shamrock Rovers host second-bottom Finn Harps at Tallaght Stadium.

Shamrock are 13 points clear of St Patrick’s Athletic in second-place and have scored 50 goals in 32 matches, whilst their opponents have 38 points to their name, 31 less than Rovers and have also leaked 46 goals in 31 outings.

Rovers have won three of their last five matches in the league, defeating the likes of Derry City 2-1, as well as Sligo Rovers 2-0 and Longford Town 1-0, whilst Finn Harps have drawn 2-2 with both Sligo Rovers and Dundalk, as well as being thumped 4-1 away at Waterford, with the hosts in that scoring twice whilst being down to 10 men.