Damac vs Al-Taawoun: Visitors may be too strong

Damac are in a real battle to stay in the Saudi Pro League and face a tough test as they host Al-Taawoun on Thursday (15:45 GMT).

The away side are fifth in the table, and despite their recent wobbles, they come into this clash heavily fancied to get the better of their struggling hosts. Read on for my Damac vs Al-Taawoun predictions, alongside team news and match odds. 

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Team News

Damac’s January signings, Arielson and Mohammad Al-Salkhadi, will be hoping to have an impact for a team that has struggled to score this season. This will be both of their second starts for the club if they do feature from the off.

Football Odds

Al-Taawoun forward Musa Barrow suffered a torn knee ligament the last time that these two sides met in November and remains out.

New signing Marin Petkov will be looking to get his first goal for the club after arriving from Levski Sofia in January.

Damac vs Al-Taawoun Odds

Al-Taawoun are 19/20 favourites to win, while Damac are priced up at 13/5 and the draw is available at 11/5.

Under 2.5 goals is 4/6, while the over is 11/10, both teams to score is 5/6 and it is 2/1 for there to be over 1.5 goals in the first half.

Match Result - Al-Taawoun @ 19/20

Damac lack the star power of other teams in the Saudi Pro League and that has been reflected on the pitch this season, where they have won just one of their 20 league games.

Goals have been a major issue for the Knight of the South, who have hit just 14 in their 20 outings, the lowest of any team in the league.

That is in sharp contrast with Al-Taawoun, whose 37 goals in 20 matches ranks fifth in the league.

The Wolves have had some disappointing results recently, losing narrowly to Al-Ettifaq and Al-Nassr.

They have won six of their 10 away games, however, and Damac are a major lowering of their sights.

Al-Taawoun ran out 6-1 winners when these two sides met back in October and while a repeat of that scoreline looks unlikely, the visitors are fancied to win.

Today's Football Fixtures

Roger Martinez to score at anytime @ 23/20

Much of Al-Taawoun’s success this season has come from the performances of striker Roger Martinez, who has scored 15 goals in 19 games for the Wolves.

It is eye-catching that he alone has netted more goals than Damac's whole team this season.

The 30-year-old has six goals in his last five matches and is worth siding with to get on the scoresheet once more against Damac, just as he did in the reverse fixture.