Randers – Nordsjaelland
Danish Superliga Round 4
Randers, August 13, 14:00 CET
One of the funniest stories of this football summer in Europe comes this week from Denmark. Randers will welcome the runner-up and absolute favorite Nordsjaelland on Sunday in the 4th round of the Danish Superliga. On Friday, Randers on his official Twitter account asked the big European clubs to buy the player of the opposing team as soon as possible!
"Dear chairman of PSG, Ajax and all other clubs interested in Ernest Nuamah. Please buy him now. At the very latest before our game on Sunday, so we don't have to face this beast of a player" – reads the official announcement of Randers, which made soccer Europe laugh.
Randers are absolutely right, Nordsjaelland's big star, teenager and striker from Ghana Nuamah, has been completely dominating the Superliga for months now. Last season, he was deservedly chosen as the best player of the Superliga. Then at the start of the new season, in three rounds, he already scored four goals with an assist... With him in the team, Nordsjaelland is an equal rival to the famous FC Copenhagen in the fight for the title in the Superliga, as was the case until the very end of last season. Both FC Copenhagen and Nordsjaelland now have the maximum score at the start of the new season - and they do not plan to let up.
There are many reasons to believe in Nordsjaelland's new triumph, this time away from home. In the last ten games against Randers, the favorite managed to avoid defeat nine times. Of those, seven times were matches in which both teams managed to score goals. At home, in the last four matches against Nordsjaelland that were not drawn, Randers still managed to win twice - so it is clear that this is a difficult and proud opponent, who knows how to surprise the favorites when they are hosts.
What is a more pronounced trend, however, is the fact that a large number of goals are traditionally scored in duels between these opponents. In their last five duels, as many as 18 goals were seen (Nordsjaelland scored 10 of them). At least three goals in this game are almost a certain outcome.
Randers has obvious problems in defense at the start of the season. In the previous round, the team was defeated by FC Copenhagen 4:0. Previously, on their home field, Randers lost the lead in the second half and played a draw against Hvidovra (2:2). In the first round, away from Odense, it was also 2:2...
On the other hand, Nordsjaelland is playing impressively, in each of the three opening rounds the vice-champion of Denmark scored at least three goals - and interestingly, they conceded a goal in each of those matches. The form during the preparations in July was also impressive, so good results were achieved against teams of higher reputation (victory over Austrian Salzburg 2:0, for example).
Nordsjaelland is expected to look for a way to settle the game as soon as possible, as the team faces a Europa Conference League qualifier against Romanian FCSB. Such an approach will also suit the Randers team, which has solid offensive weapons to punish the opponent at least in the first half. The bet on the total number of goals offers better odds than the variant in which both teams would be predicted to score goals in this match - so it is potentially more interesting for this game.