In this section you’ll find our free football betting tips which cover a selection of the best matches from today, tomorrow and this weekend. The predictions made by our tipsters focus on value and can easily be combined into accumulators. The predictions & tips mainly focus on domestic games with a heavy slant towards the Premier League and Championship, plus major international fixtures.
Upcoming Football Matches
19:30 - Freiburg v Bayer Leverkusen
Christian Streich’s Freiburg welcome Peter Bosz’s Bayer Leverkusen to the Schwarzwald-Stadion for a Bundesliga fixture this Friday night. After their shock 4-1 home loss to Wolfsburg last time out, Leverkusen will be desperate to get back to winning ways in this important clash. Since returning to action, Freiburg have picked up just two points from a possible nine.
Bosz’s Bayer had won six and drawn one of their seven games prior to last Tuesday’s heavy home defeat. Leverkusen were 4-0 down before Julian Baumgartlinger’s late consolation strike. That was the club’s first league defeat in any competition since losing to Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga on 1st February. Leverkusen slipped down to fifth in the table after the midweek results, but three points on Friday would lift them into third before the others play over the weekend. Odds of 21/10 for the away side to win and both teams to score look good value to us.
14:30 - Schalke v Werder Bremen
Schalke head into this weekend’s Bundesliga match with Werder Bremen in horrendous form. David Wagner’s men last tasted league success way back in mid-January, beating Borussia Monchengladbach 2-0 at home. Can the Royal Blues pick up a rare victory at the Veltins-Arena on Saturday afternoon or will they suffer their fourth defeat on the spin?
Since returning to action, Schalke have taken a grand total of zero points from their three games, shipping nine goals in the process. After falling to a heavy defeat to rivals Borussia Dortmund, Schalke were then beaten by Augsburg and Fortuna Dusseldorf. Florian Kohfeldt’s Werder Bremen are still in big trouble, but they have taken four points from their last two games. Bremen followed up last weekend’s vital victory at Freiburg with a decent 0-0 home draw with Monchengladbach in midweek. We fancy Kohfeldt’s men to leave Gelsenkirchen with a point at the weekend. The 1-1 draw is nicely priced at odds of 11/2.
14:30 - Wolfsburg v Eintracht Frankfurt
Fresh from Tuesday’s stunning win at Bayer Leverkusen, Oliver Glasner’s Wolfsburg will be on the lookout for another three points when they entertain Adi Hutter’s Eintracht Frankfurt at the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday. Wolfsburg are a team in very good form at present, losing only one league game since January. Can the home side pick up another crucial three points this weekend?
A Marin Pongracic brace and strikes by Maximillian Arnold and Renato Steffen helped Wolfsburg to a resounding 4-1 win at in-form Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday evening. The Wolves have picked up just four home league wins thus far this term, but we fancy them to follow up Tuesday’s memorable victory with another three points on Saturday. Take a punt on the home team to win with a -1 goal handicap, which is available at a decent price of 11/5.
17:30 - Bayern Munich v Fortuna Dusseldorf
Hans-Dieter Flick’s Bayern Munich have had a superb week already. Not only did the champions beat title rivals Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday evening at the Signal Iduna Park to move seven points clear at the top of the Bundesliga table, but RB Leipzig, Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen all dropped points. This Saturday, the Bavarians will be looking for another comfortable home win when Uwe Rosler’s Fortuna Dusseldorf visit the Allianz Arena.
Joshua Kimmich’s exquisite chip settled a frantic game in Dortmund on Tuesday. The following day, Fortuna claimed a narrow 2-1 home win over Schalke, which was their first league victory in five. In-form Bayern have won each of their last nine games across all competitions, and they should make it 10 in a row with ease on Saturday. Back Bayern to win both halves at a fair price of 4/6.
14:30 - Monchengladbach v Union Berlin
Borussia Monchengladbach and Union Berlin square off at Borussia-Park in the Bundesliga on Sunday afternoon. Marco Rose’s men were held to a 0-0 draw at Werder Bremen in midweek after being thumped 4-1 by Bayer Leverkusen in their last home game. Therefore, the Foals will be after all three points on home turf at the weekend. Rose’s boys are the clear favourites with the bookies.
Union Berlin stopped a run of three successive defeats, drawing 1-1 with Mainz last time out. Urs Fischer’s men have won just one of their previous seven in the Bundesliga, and they are down in 13th spot as a consequence. Only Eintracht Frankfurt have a poorer away record than Union this term, and we fancy Gladbach to hit back with an important three points. Back the hosts to be winning at half time and full time at 5/4.
17:00 - Paderborn v Borussia Dortmund
After suffering a gut-wrenching loss to Bundesliga title rivals Bayern Munich last time out, Borussia Dortmund will be eager to strike back with a win on Sunday. Lucien Favre takes his Black and Yellows to the Benteler-Arena to face Steffen Baumgart’s Paderborn. The home team are bottom of the table with just 19 points to their name.
Dortmund slipped seven points behind Bayern after Tuesday’s narrow 1-0 reverse at the Signal Iduna Park. That was their first league loss since a 4-3 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen in early February. As for Paderborn, they have picked up just one Bundesliga victory in 2020 and look set for an instant return to the second tier. The bottom side could be on the wrong end of a backlash on Sunday. Check out the tempting price of 9/2 for Dortmund to win -3 at the Benteler-Arena.
19:30 - Koln v RB Leipzig
Julian Nagelsmann’s RB Leipzig are in Bundesliga action on Monday night, as the Red Bulls travel to the RheinEnergieStadion to take on Markus Gisdol’s Koln. The hosts are in mid-table having won 10 of 28 fixtures. Leipzig are third ahead of this round of fixtures, nine points adrift of leaders Bayern Munich and just two behind Borussia Dortmund. Can Nagelsmann’s boys return to Leipzig with an important three points in the bag?
Koln have taken two points from a possible nine since returning to action. Last Wednesday, the Billy Goats were beaten 3-1 at Hoffenheim. However, they are not easy to beat at home, losing only one Bundesliga game on their own patch since November. Having dropped points at home last time out, RB Leipzig will want maximum points in Cologne. However, we can see the hosts holding the Red Bulls to a draw. The 1-1 stalemate is available at huge odds of 17/2.
UPDATE: Football Postponements & Cancellations
Currently all major football leagues in Europe, with the exception of the German Bundesliga, have been postponed or cancelled. The Premier League and EFL have both been called off until early June at the earliest, while several other top leagues have been postponed until further notice.
ENGLISH LEAGUES
With nine rounds of fixtures left to play, the Premier League has had to step aside for the ongoing virus. The initial return date was April 4th, but the postponement was extended indefinitely. Similar applies to the Championship and League One, with June now also their earliest return date. League Two and the National League have both voted to end their seasons early. Football chiefs in England continue to meet to discuss plans for the remainder of the season.
OTHER LEAGUES
Germany has been the first nation to return to action, with the Bundesliga and Bundesliga II resuming on the 16th May, albeit behind closed doors.
Italy, who have been hit hard by the virus, were hoping to return to some kind of action in May. This will now be June at the earliest although nothing has been confirmed yet. La Liga is suspended, whilst the SPFL, Ligue 1 and the Eredivisie will not complete their seasons. La Liga initially said there would be no football for at least two rounds but that was extended with a date of June 12th now set for the potential return to action.
In general most leagues, including the Champions and Europa Leagues, are suspended “until further notice”. Whilst some have talked about not playing until at least the start of April the reality is that we are unlikely to see any major football played, even behind closed doors, until much later.
There have the odd exception to that, with some matches in Australia, Nigeria, Belarus and one or two other nations still going ahead. Some of those will be played without spectators so all in all it really is very slim pickings for football fans over the coming weeks and months.
EURO 2020 DELAYED TO 2021
In addition to all that, UEFA Euro 2020 has been postponed until 2021 in the hope that this will allow the European leagues to finish their domestic seasons over the now-free summer. The semi-finals of the play-offs (to decide the final four teams at the Euros), which were due to take place in March, have also been postponed, with those now pencilled in for June and the four finals to follow at some stage after that.
OTHER INTERNATIONAL MATCHES & CUPS
The 2020 Copa America has also been delayed for 12 months and various international friendly games that were scheduled to take place have been cancelled. That includes the likes of England v Italy (March 27) and England v Romania, which wasn’t due to be played until the 7th June.
Football Bets
Our tips and predictions mainly focus on a few core bets. Chances are you’re already familiar with these, but here’s a quick run down just in case:
- Win/Draw/Win – The simplest bet you can make… who will win the match?
- HT/FT – The odds for the WDW markets are often quite low, especially when one team is heavily favoured. The halft-time/full-time market offers an opportunity to boost the odds by selecitng the result for both half time and the final whistle.
- Handicap Betting – Another way to increase the odds on the match result is to add a handicap. For example, Arsenal -2 means that they effectively start the match at -2, meaning they need two goals more than the other team to draw and three more to win.
- Both Teams to Score – Originating in the Goals Galore market from Betfred, both teams to score has become incredibly popular. They frequently show up in accumulators and with odds usually below evens it’s easy to see why. Other variations you may see in our tips are both teams not to score (BTTS No – where one or both teams won’t score) and BTTS + Win, where the winner of the match is picked alongside the BTTS bet.
- Over/Under – Another bet that’s along the same lines as BTTS are over/under bets. Except here you’re predicting whether the totaly number of goals will be above or below a target figure. The most comon example is 2.5 goals, although you can place these bets on a wide range of numbers. You can even bet on over 0.5 goals if you think it’s going to be anything other than a 0-0 draw.
- Correct Score – To really boost the odds, head to the correct score market. It’s a hard bet to predict but it sometimes has value.
- Goalscorer – You wont see these bets too frequently in our tips, but they do crop up from time to time if the value offered is good. Here we’re picking who will score, either first, last or at any point in the match. For matches with a heavy favourite and a strong striker you may even see something along the lines of “Ronaldo to score two or more goals”.