Football Bet of the Day: Listing Lierse to carry on sinking

Club Brugge are Belgium's league leaders

Kevin Hatchard's having a merry Christmas when it comes to tipping, and he hopes to extend his winning run today with a selection from the Belgian top flight.

Lierse v Club Brugge
Friday December 26, 17:00
Live on Betfair Live Video

I hope you all enjoyed your respective Christmas Days. I had a fine festive 24 hours, although it is extraordinary how kids amplify each other's voices. Between the four of them (not all mine, thank heavens), they made more noise than an Apache Gunship. I was mock-stabbed and mock-beaten to a pulp many times - it was like a remake of Highlander.

One set of people who didn't really have fun yesterday were Manisaspor, as they lost 9-0 at Trabzonspor in the Turkish Cup. That's right - (NINE), as the Vidiprinter would have written it (look it up, kids). Although I'm happy the result led to our fourth winner in four days this week, I was a bit annoyed that I wasn't a bit braver than an Over 2.5 Goals bet. Ah well, no harm done.

We're spending our Boxing Day in Belgium (wait, where are you going? Come back!) and a clash between Lierse and Club Brugge. Lierse are rock-bottom of the top-flight standings, while Club Brugge will be top of the pile regardless of today's result.

Lierse have had a nightmarish campaign. They have won just three of their 20 league matches, no-one has conceded more goals than they have (41), and they have collected just two points from their last nine outings. Their most recent league match was an unmitigated disaster, as they were demolished 6-0 at Sporting Charleroi, a game that saw them go 2-0 down in eight minutes.

Club Brugge are solid but unspectacular on their travels. They have lost just one of their ten road matches, but have only won four. However, we can take encouragement from the fact that three of those wins came from the last five away games, so maybe Michel Preudhomme's men have learned how to turn draws into wins outside their comfort zone.

All four of Club Brugge's away wins have come by a margin of two goals or bigger, and I anticipate a similar result here against a terrible Lierse side. We can use the Asian Handicap to drag the odds above evens. If Club Brugge win by two, it's a winner. A one-goal win returns half our stake. Anything less, and it's an outright loser.

Recommended Bet

Back Club Brugge -1.0 & -1.5 on the Asian Handicap at 2.07n/a

2014 P/L (1 pt per bet)

Points Staked: 74

Points Returned: 74.05

P/L: +0.05 points