5 Tips for Thursday’s Action – 13/5/21

On Thursday night, Everton travel to Villa Park where they take on Aston Villa with the opportunity to move into the final European qualification positions.

The last time these two sides met was fairly recently, on 1st May where Villa ran out as 2-1 winners at Goodison Park, in what was an under-par performance from the Toffees, but, since then, Carlo Ancelotti’s side put in a stern display away at West Ham, where Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the only goals of the game in a 1-0 win for the Italian’s side.

Villa were soundly beaten by Manchester United at the weekend, following a rampant second-half display by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side which saw goals from Bruno Fernandes, Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani cancel out Bertrand Traore’s first-half opener.

In the latter stages of the match against United, Villa striker Ollie Watkins was sent off due to receiving a second yellow card for simulation, which will be a huge loss to Dean Smith’s side, as the former Brentford striker is their top scorer with 15 goals this campaign.

Everton have won by the score range of 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 on 13 separate occasions in the Premier League this season.

Manchester United play Liverpool at Old Trafford on Thursday night in a re-arranged fixture, which will take place just two days prior to their game against Leicester City, meaning the Red Devils will have played three matches in five days.

The last time these two sides met at Old Trafford was in the FA Cup where goals from Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford and Bruno Fernandes saw United come out as 3-2 winners, cancelling out Mohamed Salah’s brace.

Liverpool come into this match desperately needing all three points in their pursuit of Champions League football next season, as they currently trail Leicester by six points and Chelsea by seven. However, Jurgen Klopp is yet to be on the winning side at Old Trafford, whilst Liverpool’s last victory at the Theatre of Dreams came at the back end of the 2013/14 season when David Moyes was United manager.

United won 3-1 at Villa Park last weekend, as mentioned in the previous tip, meaning that they have lost just one of their last 28 league matches, whilst Liverpool have won just one of their last three matches in the division, beating Southampton 2-0 last time out and drawing 1-1 with both Leeds United and Newcastle before their victory last weekend.

Real Madrid take on Granada knowing that they must pick up all three points if they are to stand any chance of winning La Liga this season. Los Blancos drew 2-2 with Sevilla last time out at the Santiago Bernabeu, meaning that they are two points behind city rivals Atletico Madrid with just three games remaining.

Karim Benzema is the player in focus here, as the French striker is the second top scorer in La Liga, with only Lionel Messi ahead of him. The former Lyon man has been involved in 48% of Real’s goals in the league this season and scored in a 2-0 win against Granada in December.

The 33-year-old has scored 21 and assisted eight in 31 La Liga matches this season, scoring six braces, meaning that he is priced at 7/2 to get his seventh brace in the division this season against Granada on Thursday.

The DFB Pokal final takes place on Thursday, which sees RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund go head-to-head at the Olympiastadion in Berlin.

Ironically these two faced off last weekend, which saw Dortmund win 3-2, as a Jadon Sancho brace and an early Marco Reus strike was enough to earn the Black and Yellows all three points at the Signal Iduna Park.

Their other meeting in the league also results in a Dortmund win with both teams scoring at the Red Bull Arena, as goals from Sancho and Erling Haaland (2) saw off Leipzig, who scored a late consolation goal through former Crystal Palace striker Alexander Sorloth.

Dortmund’s matches against Leipzig typify their season, as they are the second top scorers in the Bundesliga with 69 goals, but, their defensive record of conceding 44 in 32 matches has been their Achilleas heel. Julian Nagelsmann’s side come into this match having won just two out of their last five games across all competitions.

Unai Emery’s Villarreal travel to relegation battling Real Valladolid in search of all three points, as they have slipped out of the Europa League qualification places, following their shock 4-2 loss against Celta Vigo at the weekend.

Valladolid come into this game just one point above the relegation zone, with Huesca and Elche breathing down their necks, following no wins in their last nine league games, meaning that they could be the ideal opponents for Villarreal to play as the Yellow Submarine are just two points behind Real Betis in sixth.

The player in focus in this match is Villarreal’s Gerard Moreno, who is the joint-second top scorer in La Liga alongside Karim Benzema with 21 goals, having played 30 matches, one fewer than the Frenchman. Moreno is having an outstanding season for Villarreal meaning that he is priced at 23/10 to score first against Valladolid.