Enviado: 02 de Agosto de 2015, 11:26
SPL: Dundee United-Aberdeen
Last season on opening day we saw these two play in the reverse fixture, Aberdeen went into that game drained, having been eliminated from the Europa League just a couple of days previously and they lost 3-0. It did not stop them ultimately having their best season in yeras and they were the closest challengers to champions Celtic all season long and only three points adrift as late as mid March. Today we have a little bit of history repeating as the Dons again played a Europa League match on Thursday, this time having made the longest trip in European football history (and back) to play Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan , where they lost 2-1 in very tough conditions. That was an 11,000km round trip which effectively lasted four days in terms of travel and acclimatisation, across five time zones (and back !), having already been to Macedonia and Croatia in the last month, they must be at least a little jaded and it will be hard to get "up" for today's bread and butter action.
They are focused on extending their European adventure and expended a lot of energy to get that away goal on Thursday after falling behind to two early goals and are sure to have one eye on the return leg this week. United will have been fully focused on this for weeks and will be looking for the highly energetic, upbeat performance they put in on this day last year, they also won both home games against Aberdeen and backing them with a handicap start today looks the way to go, as I am certain that the visitors would see a point as one earned rather than two lost. The hosts started last season very strongly, and were 6-1-1 and top of the SPL after eight matches and are looking for something similar this time round, they have had a "poor" pre season results wise, but have been playing top level opposition and pushed EPL side Watford very close last weekend in their final warm up game. Anyway, far from ideal prep for Aberdeen and I have to oppose them.
Dundee United +0.25 ball 2.11 asian line/Sportmarket