Sports Blog 17/12/2014: Match Preview – Bournemouth vs Liverpool, Wednesday 17th December

Teams being in ‘crisis’ is a classic footballing cliché.

With that said, following a 3-0 defeat to Manchester United, and crashing out of the Champions League last week, Liverpool are teetering on the edge of the ‘c’ word, and will be desperate to avoid leaving the League Cup against Bournemouth tonight.

As Liverpool languish in 11th place, Bournemouth are riding high at the top of the Championship, and are coming into the quarter final off a 12 game unbeaten run. Bournemouth have already beaten Premier League competition (albeit West Brom) to reach this point in the cup and, oddly for a Championship side, the Cherries sent out a team relatively full of second-stringers. A team of Liverpool reserves may run into some serious problems, meaning Brendan Rodgers is expected to field a stronger selection than in previous rounds, including a potentially returning Balotelli.



Despite evidence pointing in the opposite direction, our Spreadex clients are still fancying Liverpool at a Goal Supremacy spread betting quote of Liverpool/Bournemouth (h) 0.4-0.6, perhaps unable to see beyond the league difference between the two teams. Our clients are also expecting a few goals tonight, with Bournemouth top scorer Callum Wilson set to start, seeing a lot of movement on a Total Goals spread betting quote of 2.8-3.0.

Wilson is only at 17/2 fixed odds betting to score first, despite finding the net 12 times this season, including the winner against West Brom in the last round. Steven Gerrard is at the same odds to score first, with the Liverpool captain still top scorer for the Reds on 5 goals, highlighting their present deficiencies up front. The returning Balotelli is at 5/1 to score first, whilst Jordan Henderson, Liverpool’s second top scorer with 3 goals (!!!) is at 10/1. An interesting price is Bournemouth’s Marc Pugh, joint second top scorer for the Cherries with 6 goals, but only 14/1 fixed odds betting to score first.

With Southampton’s defeat at the hands of Sheffield United, and Chelsea beating Derby last night, Liverpool or Bournemouth could join either Tottenham or Newcastle in the semi-finals if they win tonight. The League Cup is made for upsets; Bournemouth will be salivating for the chance of such a big scalp.