Stoke City vs. Manchester United - 01.01.2015

The early date of the first round for the year 2015 in the English Premier League sent Manchester United to a visit of the team of Stoke City. Both teams come into this match in good condition after Stoke reduced the problems at home, but United had no loss from nine consecutive rounds. The bad news, regarding both teams, is that there are many injured players in both of them. Therefore, the managers may have some problems.

Mark Hughes has achieved some consecutive wins for the first time that season after the last round just two days after he released a previous unchanged team. He probably wouldn't want to change anything in attempts of achieving any better results, but how will his guys handle the third game in less than a week? Surely, it will be stressful for them.

Boyan Krkic proved to be very influential for the condition of Stoke in the last time but his participation in the today’s game is still questionable. Odemvingi, Moses, Sidwell and Barsley remain injured, but there is no sure info about Stephen Ireland.

The situation for Manchester United is improving but looking at it overall, it doesn't seem good in terms of the injured footballers. Daley Blind, Jesse Lingard, Marwan Felaini and Markus Rojo are injured, and the participation of Antonio Valencia, Angel di Maria, Ander Herrera and Adnan is still questionable.

Van Gaal also did not change the structure of his team only 48 hours after a game played, and now it is expected for us to see some changes. Antonio Valencia was replaced by Rafael in both matches, as the Brazilian can now start the game, taking advantage of his trauma.

Stoke always puts ordeal when the team welcomes rivals at home in harsh weather conditions and last year this team beat the Red Devils here. Everything will be decided by the ability of the managers to use enough of the restored and fresh players in their teams.

Some useful stats and facts for you:

Last 5 played games:

Stoke City

6 December: Stoke City-Arsenal: 3:2 (Premier League)

13 December: Crystal Palace-Stoke City 1:1 (Premier League)

22 December: Stoke City-Chelsea: 0:2 (Premier League)

26 December: Everton-Stoke City 0:1 (Premier League)

28 December: Stoke City-West Bromwich: 2:0 (Premier League)

Manchester United

8 December: Southampton-Manchester United 1:2 (Premier League)

14 December: Manchester United-Liverpool 3:0 (Premier League)

20 December: Aston Villa-Manchester City: 1:1 (Premier League)

26 December: Manchester City-Newcastle: 3:1 (Premier League)

28 December: Tottenham-Manchester United: 0:0 (Premier League)

Previous matches

Stoke City-Manchester United

100 matches in total

26 wins for Stoke City

32 draws

42 wins for Manchester United

Goal difference: 155:117 for Manchester United

The football forecast of 24FootballTips for the event today is for a final result of 1:2 in favor of Manchester United.

Olympique Lyon vs. Reims

On Thursday night at "Stade de Gerland" we can watch the meeting between Lyon and Reims of the 16th round of Ligue 1 in France.

Lyon are in excellent shape and marked victory after victory. Here at "Stade de Gerland", they conceded only one loss for the past 7 games and six victories. “Lions” are motivated to fight hard to rank in the top three places in the league, which will send them directly to the Champions League. The bookmaker Bet365 offers a bet on the triumph of Lyon at odds of 1.50, which is quite normal. Lyon now takes the third place in the table with a total of 27 points, which is 8 points less than the first Marseille. With equal points behind them are Bordeaux, which means that they have no right of error. The last two rounds were not lucky for Lyon and after the draw with Bastia, they allowed to be beaten away from St Etienne 3-0. This defeat by interrupted their great series in which they had entered, namely 10 matches unbeaten. Clement Grenier is still injured and with punishment are Gurkuf, Gueyda Fofana and Milan Bishevats. However, Hubert Fournier has quite experienced players, but in good shape is his striker Alexander Lakazet on which is the main hope for goals in the door of Reims.

Reims occupies the ninth position, but not with so much less points then Lyon - only 5. Head coach Jean-Luc Vasseur comes in Lyon after defeating Bastia and with statistics for the past three visits with no one loss. The team have several problematic players in the face of Alexis Pyodzhe, Sasha Bashtayn, Ahlbeck and Anthony Webber. Also Nicholas Preval is questionable.

Last 5 direct meetings:

19.01.2014 Reims – Lyon 0:2

18.12.2013 Lyon – Reims 3:2

24.08.2013 Lyon – Reims 0:1

07.04.2013 Reims – Lyon 1:0

18.11.2012 Lyon – Reims 3:0

Soccer forecast by 24FootballTips: Olympique Lyon – Reims: 1

Security: 8/10

Odds: 1.50 at bet 365

Paris St Germain – Nantes

At the stadium "Parc des Princes" in Paris on Saturday, Paris St Germain welcomes the team of Nantes. The hosts had occupied the second position in the standings, but only point behind leaders Marseille, while the guests Nantes are eighth.

In the last 16th round of Ligue 1, Paris Saint Germain missed a golden chance to jump over Marseille after drew 1-1 with the 15th in the table Lille. Marseille also make equity and the one point difference between the two leaders was saved. Against Nantes, midfielders Marco Vera and Yohan Cabaye will be not available for the coach Laurent Blanc.

Last round was winless for Nantes again for the third time. "Canaries" still significantly improved their performance from the last season. Team occupies the eighth place with a total of 24 points and before their recently defeats were found among the teams in the top four of the league. Against the champions, Michel Der Zakaryan will be not able to use his defender Kofi Gigi.

Paris St Germain are an absolute favourites in this match. Parisians are not entitled to a second error and against Nantes here on "Parc des Princes" they have no loss from more than 10 years. Victory of  PSG will climb them on the top at least one day until Marseille play on Sunday against Metz.

Prediction: Paris St Germain - Nantes: 1
The security level, provided by 24FootballTips: 8/10 (80%)
Odds: 1.95 at bet365

Derby County vs. Chelsea - Expert Football Prediction

Derby County vs. Chelsea – that is a match from the1/4-finals of the League Cup in England that you cannot miss! And why not place some bets as well? They claim that it is one of those easily predictable matches, which in addition may bring you lots of money (in case you know how to bet responsibly, of course). You should first find a bookie, which offers the highest odds. Then you must decide whether to bet according to ready-made soccer tips (either yours or professional ones) or during the game. Live score betting is always the more thrilling option, compared to the usual ones.

Here is some info about the team of Chelsea – check it out:

Goalies: Czech, Schwarzer

Defenders: Philippe Louis, Terry Cahill, Zuma, Ivanovic, Aspilikueta, Christensen

Midfielders: Oscar, Jill, Salah, Azar, Ramirez, Šurle, Mikkel, Ma Titch, Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek

Strikers: Drogba, Remy, Diego Costa

Injured: A Ke, Courtois

Suspended: None

Undoubtedly, the guests are the absolute favorites in that match. Since the opponent is from the lower division and is significantly less classy than the Londoners, Mourinho will most likely give a chance to some of the young players in the team, who rarely get the chance.

The talented midfielder Loftus-Cheek is a candidate for a titular today, and Christensen also can start the match from the first minute on a protected term.

Most probably, Zuma, Ramirez, Surle, Mikkel and Remy will be the titulars in today's match, and the Special one will give rest most of his key players to preserve their powers for the busy cycle of matches. The guests will be without Ake and Courtois for today's event as they both suffer from injuries.

Derby County is one of the best teams in the English League Championship and has a serious intent to chase promotion in the English Premier League.

The team currently occupies the third place in the second division of English football with a total of 38 points and it is only a point away from the leaders in the table – AFC Bournemouth.

In their last 5 games from all tournaments, ‘the Rams’ have had 3 wins and 2 losses, but Chelsea has had the same number of matches but has had 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.

The Blues have had 4 wins and 1 draw in their last 5 matches against that opponent from 2001 to the present, time. So our soccer forecast for today's match is a success with 0:2 for the Londoners.

Startup capital for soccer betting

If you are a true fan of soccer, then probably you are being tempted by plenty of gambling possibilities on the web space. Actually, being a fan of football is not the only requirement needed in order to be able to do reliable soccer tips. You have to be aware of some basics, first. The most important thing you have to know is how to spend your money in the best possible way. That question is the most frequently asked one but in fact, there is no definite answer. Surely, you will need a startup capital. Of course, it is not possible to start gambling with nothing ‘invested’ – just like that. Here are the useful pieces of advice on how to form your startup capital for soccer betting (specially provided by 24FootballTips) – look at them:

• Spend cash that you have for real – it is obviously the most important factor. You have to always comply with your budget. Many punters get into debt simply because they don’t know the real meaning of the phrase ‘responsible gambling’. You should not be stingy and not too generous as well;
• It is essential to have a good knowledge of soccer betting – there are some people who have never bet in their lives, and therefore have no idea about the rules and specifics, regarding sports betting. Those people, however, are willing to win much and think that it will happen when their stake is large. We don’t recommend bit stakes. We recommend you educate yourself a bit. That will facilitate you and your future game;
• Risk-taking extent – some fans are just afraid of betting in general and they do not want to risk and bet with more money. If you are such a person and you do not feel confident in your skills to draw good soccer tips, then you should start betting with less cash;
• How much time you have available for betting? People, who have really much time for it, usually are more successful than the others and therefore, need more cash. But these people are usually professionals – the so-called tipsters. If becoming such a professional is your aim, then you need to have a big enough startup capital;
• What profit you want – naturally, if your startup capital is larger, then you have the better chance to earn some more cash.

Setting your startup capital and budget limit is not so simple task, but think about that. Everything is up to you – especially how you evaluate yourself – are you a beginner or an expert in soccer betting? What is more, the online bookmakers usually have a minimum buy-in amount set. So, do you dare to spend more than it?