Football betting tips: Reading v Blackburn
1pt Reading to win by one goal at 3/1 (General)
0.5pt e.w Michael Olise to score first at 14/1 (Bet365) (e.w. terms 1/3 odds 1-98 places)
It’s fair to say February was a month Reading and Blackburn would both like to forget in a hurry.
Four defeats from seven, which included losing all three of their home games, has left fifth-placed Reading peeking nervously over their shoulders at the chasing play-off pack.
Rovers, meanwhile, saw any lingering top-six hopes virtually obliterated by a run of five losses in six games, picking up just one point from a possible 18 and slipping to 15th in the Sky Bet Championship.
Kick-off time: Tuesday, 20:00 GMT
TV channel: Sky Sports Main Event
Home 11/8 | Draw 23/10 | Away 2/1
That’s a whopping eight places off where Infogol statistics suggest they should be – and basically comes down to Blackburn’s habit of narrowly losing games they should draw or win.
Blackburn’s past nine defeats have all come by single-goal margins – take it back further and 13 of their 16 losses in all competitions this season have been by a solitary goal.
Given Reading are just edging the formbook between these two sides who are both slightly low on confidence, that’s a pattern I’m inclined to expect to continue at the Madejski on Tuesday night.
You can get 3/1 generally on READING TO WIN BY ONE GOAL and that looks a smart play on recent form.
Michael Olise provides value to score first
A price that raised my eyebrows in the goalscorer markets is the 14/1 bet365 offer on Reading’s teenage attacking midfielder MICHAEL OLISE TO SCORE FIRST.
It’s surprisingly high (8s pretty much across the board elsewhere) given that, after top scorer Lucas Joao, 19-year-old Olise is really the Royals’ second biggest threat in the final third.
Yakou Meite is on the comeback trail from injury and should feature but probably from the bench as Veljko Paunovic will surely be reluctant to throw him straight back in to start after several weeks out.
Only Joao and Meite are averaging more shots per game for Reading this season than Olise, who has four goals to his name and, while I hesitate to use the phrase, is really due another.
He’s not afraid to let fly from distance, more of his shots coming from outside the box than inside, and Rovers keeper Thomas Kaminski has, at times, been liable to concede from range this season – as our Infogol goal map shows.
A number of fairly low percentage chances - from both outside and just inside the area - have found their way past the Belgian stopper, making an Olise opener even better value.
We can take bet365's 1-98 place offer at 1/3 odds to each way terms, giving us just under 5/1 on him to score at any time.
Reading v Blackburn score prediction and best bets
- Reading to win by one goal at 3/1 (General)
- Michael Olise to score first at 14/1 (Bet365) (e.w. terms 1/3 odds 1-98 places)
Score prediction: Reading 2-1 Blackburn (Sky Bet odds: 8/1)
Posted at 1400 GMT on 01/03/21
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