Osasuna entertain Real Betis and I am always happy to back the hosts on home soil at odds against, facing all but the very strongest that La Liga has to offer, this season they are 3-3-0 and last season they were 7-6-1 as late as April, having lost only to Barcelona until then. Very few non top 4 teams have won here in the last three seasons and Betis, who have not win in nine certainly fall far short of that high level. The visitors will be without suspended captain Iriney and their coach Pepe Mel is under intense pressure and has supposedly been told that he is unlikely to remain in the job should Betis lose today. Mel is obviously low on confidence and openly stated that he believes he should be sacked, which is honest, but hardly the type of motivational speak you normally expect. Only Jonathan Pereira has scored for them in the last 561 minutes of football and they have only managed 3 goals in nine starts. Hosts are boosted by the return of several players including Jukka Raitala and Sergio Fernandez , which gives coach Jose Luis Mendilibar far more options today and I expect them to win. Osasuna -0.5 ball 2.17 asian line.
Into the NFL, we opposed the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day and they lost 27-15 to the Green Bay Packers, there was no shame in losing to the reigning Super Bowl champions, who are unbeaten this campaign, but they continually shot themselves in the foot with a number of costly penalties, one of which came courtesy of their star defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who has since been suspended for two games and cannot play tonight, which is little short of a disaster against the very highly ranked New Orleans Saints offense. If that was bad ( and self inficted), they also suffered injuries to several other key players, not only might running back Kevin Smith miss out tonight and if he does play, it will be at less than 100%, but they have a treatment room full of "secondary" players, which means that Drew Brees will be able to almost throw at will to his receivers tonight. The Saints running game has been improving on a week by week basis which will keep the Lions "honest" and buoyed by a very impressive 49-24 defeat of the Giants last week and looking to retain their lead over Atlanta in the division and put some pressure on the 49ers for home field playoff advantage, I cannot see beyond a two touchdown win for New Orleans tonight. 1.5 units New Orleans Saints -9 points 2.03 Pinnacle/ Vegas Line.
Good Luck.
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