League One Millwall play host to Premier League opposition on Saturday as they host Bournemouth at The Den. The two teams will go head-to-head for a place in the fourth round of the FA Cup.
Although they will have to travel to the capital and thus play away from home, Eddie Howe and his Bournemouth side will undoubtedly have been happy with this draw and will know that they’ve been presented with an excellent opportunity to progress in the competition.
The Premier League outfit have enjoyed a fairly decent campaign so far and will surely want to continue in such vein in the FA Cup. Without disrespecting their opposition, who’re going pretty well in League One this season, Bournemouth really ought to be getting the job done here and certainly warrant support from punters.
There are two worthwhile bets ahead of this one and these are ‘Bournemouth to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ and ‘Bournemouth to Win & Over 2.5 Goals’, at odds of 5/6 & 17/10 respectively.
The south-coast side have made a name for themselves as an attacking outfit in recent times – Eddie Howe wants his teams to press high without the ball and go forward at every opportunity with it. Such a style has often paid dividends in terms of goals and it’s hardly surprising that they’ve scored more than all but one of the ten teams who currently sit below them in the Premier League table.
Against League One opposition, even though they’re away from home, Bournemouth should see plenty of the ball and are likely to enjoy numerous forays forward. With this in mind, it’s difficult so see an outcome where the visitors fail to score goals. The fact that they’ve scored six in their last two league matches bodes well.
Speaking of goals, Millwall are also no strangers to scoring in their own division. The hosts, who currently sit in 9th position in the third tier, have scored 41 goals this season – a tally that is greater than 21 of the other 23 teams in the division. However, what they possess in forward quality they lack in defensive solidity. Their 39 goals conceded is more than all but one of the teams in the top-half and more than several in the bottom-half. Neil Harris’ team have kept just four clean sheets in 25 attempts this season so it’s certainly not difficult to envisage them struggling defensively against Premier League opposition.
Both of these two have also made a bit of a habit of being involved in relatively high-scoring encounters this season. ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ would have landed in 72% of Millwall’s fixtures and in 60% of Bournemouth’s.
It wouldn’t the greatest surprise if Millwall did register on the score-sheet here, after all Bournemouth are the sort of team who afford their opposition attacking space. However, the Premier League side should have far too much in the locker and are fancied to come out on top in high-scoring fashion.
See more FA Cup tips here.