FC Orenburg v Krylia Sovetov Betting Tips

The Russian Premier League’s bottom two come together in Orenburg on Monday night for what will probably be the most boring game you will ever witness. Luckily for punters it is relatively predictable.

Orenburg’s last Premier League game should have been a thrashing away at title contenders Zenit St. Petersburg, however, somehow they managed to limit Zenit to just the one goal. Although, with goal difference way down in eighth on the list of rules of classification for the Russian Premier League, it will not help much and a defeat is still a defeat no matter how much you sugar coat it.

If we look back a fortnight or so ago to Orenburg’s win at home to Tom Tomsk, we can perhaps look back at that match as a catalyst for good things to come. Their narrow loss to Zenit followed that and then on Thursday night they managed to take high-flying Krasnodar to extra time in their Russian Cup match before losing 3-2.

Whilst Robert Yevdokimov’s men are bottom of the table for a reason, when we look at their fixtures against teams in and around them, Orenburg actually have a pretty decent record. Before that recent win against relegation rivals Tom Tomsk, they snatched a draw away at fellow strugglers Arsenal Tula as well as earning ‘bonus’ home draws against Amkar Perm, Rubin Kazan and Anzhi Makhachkala respectively – all of whom will be at least challenging in the top half this season.

All of this bodes well for Monday’s match against bottom side Krylia Sovetov.

I have said it before and I will say it again, with Orenburg’s defence being pretty reasonable (their goals against record of 11 betters some of the teams higher in the league), if they had a good front-line and a reliable striker then they would probably do quite well. They would then be able to get results with their conservative football – just like Amkar Perm and FC Rostov have done in recent times.

Krylia managed to stay up last season despite scoring just 19 goals over the course of the season. This is great testament to their defence which conceded just 31 goals.

Although last season was not their first in the top flight, we can say that second season syndrome has certainly kicked in this campaign as the Wings of the Soviets find themselves bottom of the league.

Unfortunately for them they have now been found out with opponents working out how to breach that back-line which has left Krylia in a perilous position.

Their Belgian manager Franky Vercauteren has also not been helped by the lack of support from the board in the summer transfer window. No funds were made available which means the team has been unable to kick on, leaving Vercauteren very frustrated. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he resigned in a few weeks if things do not improve quickly.

This is a season defining match for Krylia and if they lose this then I fear the worst, win it however and they will have really boosted their survival chances.

However, the form book is really against the Samara side here with Krylia failing to win away all season. They have picked up a few creditable draws here and there against the likes of Lokomotiv Moscow and Amkar Perm but they have still only scored one goal in six matches on the road this season and even that was an own goal.

Going against an Orenburg side who are pretty good at the back I cannot see them improving on that record. Realistically, Krylia will be lucky to get a draw and I expect Orenburg to win. However, due to their conservative nature, as well as knowing how important it is not to lose this game, I think it will be pretty tight with just the one goal in it.

‘Orenburg to Win to Nil’ and ‘Orenburg to Win 1-0’, at 9/4 and 9/2 respectively, are both good bets ahead of this one. Whilst Orenburg may not be the best going forward, they should have enough about them at home against a poor Krylia side to pull off a victory, even if it is only by a narrow margin.

Lastly, at 5/4, ‘Under 1.5 Goals’ is another bet to go for here. In fact, this is probably the safest bet of all. It’s extremely hard to see either of these sides having too much attacking joy. One goal will likely settle what is expected to be a dull encounter.

See more tips here.