Viking – Fk Haugesund 30-04-2025

"The Battle for the West" is the highlight of the year for us Westerners. And in a week where two CL matches are pretty much all there is, this match could easily be interesting to more than just us who are emotionally involved.

Analysis of the teams

When the Arabs from Haugesund take the short route down to Stavanger, they are painfully aware that two teams in very different situations are meeting. While the audience gets their money's worth in every Viking match, the highlights are far from over for the starving people from the small town with their big inferiority complexes.

Viking – collective entertainment

There was a lot of excitement surrounding who would score the goals for Viking after Salvesen left for Derby. Most of us knew that D'Agostino was an uncertain card, and it was natural to question whether Zlatko Tripic could still carry this team now that he had turned 32. But there is much to suggest that the answer to that is a big and resounding yes.

Because with the exception of the misstep in the first round of the series, Viking, and Tripic, have played great. They are the highest-scoring team in the Eliteserien, by a good margin, and the team's captain has two goals and five assists in this year's five series matches. And even though no one is close to scoring as many goals as the dark blues from Stavanger, we have to go all the way down to 13th place on the top scorer list to find the first Viking player. It shows a strong team where everyone contributes.

But unfortunately for Viking, they are also the team that concedes the most goals, along with HamKam. This may mean that the defense is at the expense of the offense, but it may also mean that the loss of Sondre Langås is greater than expected. But the man who replaced the aforementioned Langås is probably not sleeping well heading into this match. Anders Bærtelsen came from Fk Haugesund before this season, in what was the most talked about transfer of the year. At least here locally. And there is no reason to expect him to get anything for free from either the players, or the thousands of visitors who are expected inside Lyse Arena.

Fk Haugesund – toothless Arabs

For the away team, this year's season has degenerated as most expected. The loss of both Bærtelsen and Fredriksen in central defense is noticeable, and the qualities of Selvik in goal are not easy to cover for poor Amund Wichne. And when the presence of Liseth and the creativity of Tounetki are also gone, there is little left to cheer for.

This year's season has also confirmed what was feared; Fk Haugesund still can't score goals. They didn't last year either, but Runar Espejord was supposed to solve that problem. He hasn't managed to do that. 222 minutes and zero goals. And in the previous match against Fredrikstad he was taken off at half-time after coming up short against physically strong FFK stoppers.

But for those involved, it is good to see that Sanchev Manoharan is not just sitting idly by while the boat sinks. Last time, against FFK, he switched to five at the back, and there is much to suggest that he is following the same pattern here. The transitions to Fredriksen and Bærtelsen were covered internally, and for the first time Fischer and Dia clocked in with standing character. And Niyukuri was pulled in from his back position as the last center back, and with his speed and composure he also played very well at the very back for the white-clad.

The value lies elsewhere than on the target

As mentioned, this year's Viking team is good for many goals. Both ways. But of course the bookmakers have taken this into account. And the condition Fk Haugesund is in, one should not expect big offensive contributions from there. And thus we put over 2.5 goals dead straight away. But there is another interesting factor about this year's Viking team, which we intend to exploit, and that is the corner production.

Because no team produces more. Nine corners on average is extreme, and you can't expect them to stay there for the rest of the season. But there is reason to believe that there may also be some corners in this match. For one thing, Fk Haugesund has changed their formation. A formation that led to FFK creating ten corners and zero goals, but just as important is that this is a local match. And a hate match. Viking is not going to give up at 1-0. Or at 2-0. Nothing would have pleased Viking more than to send Fk Haugesund home with lasting injuries. And they are capable of that.

And there are many indications that Fk Haugesund will go for a point. With five defenders, and a hard-working midfield with Eskesen, Konradsen and possibly Bizoza, they will give it their all throughout the match. They will lie low and pressure Viking to finish from distance. Possibly force the home team to play through and cross the ball without any significant space behind. And the longer they manage to resist, the more corners we will get.

And speaking of giving it your all; this match is going to be a hot one. And just as former FKH player Fredriksen received a yellow card against his old employer this weekend, one should not ignore the fact that Bærtelsen will receive a yellow card here. In addition to both Eskesen, Konradsen and the three in the middle at Haugesund.

But unfortunately there are no odds on short bets, and we find no value in the odds on goal bets. And since this is a local match, we also ignore the odds of -1.5 goals to Viking. But the one odds we cannot ignore are the corner odds, and therefore we end up with the following bets;

Norway at 18:00: Viking – Fk Haugesund: Over 6.5 corners to Viking (1.86)