Football Bet of the Day: Boring cup tie? Nor-way!

Now we’ve got some belting games coming our way on Thursday, with Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur both in Europa League semi-finals, and Bristol City taking on Sheffield United in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.

However, with plenty of previews on those games already available to read on Betfred Insights, I’ve taken a metaphorical trip to Norway to find some value. 

Football Odds

We’ve got a cup tie from Norway coming our way on Thursday afternoon (17:00), as fallen giants Tromso host recently-promoted KFUM Oslo at the Romssa Arena. The two-time winners of this competition frequented the Europa League on multiple occasions during the 2010s, but have recently fallen upon hard times, even being relegated down to the second tier in 2019. 

They bounced back relatively quickly and finished third in 2023, but last season a 13th-place finish meant that they only avoided the relegation play-off on goal difference. Tromso are a big club that has been unpredictable over the past few seasons, and judging by the start of this campaign, they are in for another long year. 

The Norwegian football calendar is different to the rest of Europe due to the fierce winters, so we are only just at the start of their new 2025 season. However, Tromso have only accumulated four points from five fixtures so far, leaving them 12th in the league and staring at another relegation battle.

They’ve beaten Hamna and Skjervoy in the cup, but both of those are in lower divisions so they were heavy favourites, and they now face another Eliteserien outfit in the form of KFUM Oslo. They got promoted in 2023 and followed that up with an eighth-place finish, but this season has been more difficult so far as they’ve also picked up just four points from five games and sit level with their hosts. 

KFUM Oslo secured two wins against third-tier teams in the form of Grei and Ready to reach this stage, so this tie really does feel up in the air. I certainly wouldn’t be backing the home side at odds of 9/10, so what I will look at instead is goals. 

Both defences have struggled so far at the beginning of this new campaign, and that’s why I’m going to pick over 2.5 goals as my selection for Thursday. There’s been over 2.5 goals in six of KFUM’s last seven fixtures which gives me huge confidence that we will see this come in again, with progression vital for both teams at this moment in time. 

In the four cup matches both teams appeared in this season, over 2.5 has been a successful selection in three - while Tromso have seen over 2.5 goals in three of their last four league matches - plus they beat Hamna 10-0 in this competition. 

I think there’s good value in backing goals in this tie, given the strength in both of these outfits lie in the attack. 

Offers

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