Hammarby vs IFK Norrkoping Predictions

Two of last season’s top four sides meet on Monday in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Things haven’t gone quite as well so far this term for this pair. However Hammarby are now coming into form and look capable of at least mounting a push for European qualification, if not the title. Norrkoping are 4 points worse off though and could do with a win in a big game like this to really kick-start their season.

Hammarby only managed to win 1 of their opening 5 games this term, culminating in a heavy 4-1 defeat at early season leaders Malmo. However they have responded well to that defeat. They reeled off four straight wins immediately following it before taking a point from their trip to Goteborg last time out.

Norrkoping have also got better as the season has progressed. They started the campaign with just 1 win from 8 games to pile the pressure on boss Jens Gustafsson. That pressure has been eased somewhat by back to back wins heading into this game. However both those wins came against bottom six sides so it’s premature to say that Norrkoping are back to the kind of level which fired them to a 2nd place finish last term.

They missed out on the title by just two points in the end, losing just 3 games in the entire league season. They’ve only lost twice so far this term so they have managed to retain those qualities that made them tough to beat but there has been a lack of cutting edge up top. They average just 1.4 goals per game, which isn’t really good enough to fire them into title contention again.

4 of Norrkoping’s last 6 games have produced under 2.5 goals and there looks like every chance that will be the case again here. Hammarby have shown impressive defensive qualities of late, keeping a clean sheet in each of their last 3 matches. They were held to a 0-0 draw last time out though and backing Under 2.5 Goals looks quite appealing here, with generous odds on offer.

In terms of the outcome, it’s a hard game to call and backing the Draw could be the smart bet in the Full-Time Result market. Norrkoping are the division’s draw specialists with 5 of their last 9 league games ending all square and they’d probably settle for a point against a Hammarby side that has also drawn 3 times so far this term.