Charlie Edwards v Angel Moreno
Boxing – 8.00 pm
Sky Sports
Britain’s Charlie Edwards headlines a big night of boxing on Sky Sports. So let’s kick off the bets bets of the day preview for Saturday here. He is going to put his WBC flyweight title on the line against Angel Moreno. Edwards got the belt around his waist after taking a unanimous decision against Cristofer Gonzalez in December last year. That really took his career to the next level.
He’s described himself as being a different beast since that success. How will he handle the pressure of being the champion though? Edwards is a long odds-on price to win, and leading bookmakers have the Briton at 2/9 to win on points. That is because he has only had the six knockout victories in his 14 professional wins. Moreno has never been stopped in his 23 pro-fight career, losing just two of those bouts. The Spaniard is 18/1 to get it on points.
Saracens v Harlequins
Premiership Rugby – 3.00 pm
BT Sport
Saracens have been losing some steam recently. They are trailing Exeter in the title race with just a W3 L4 record in their last seven Premiership games. Last weekend they faced up to Northampton in the Premiership Cup Final and took a battering, not even getting a try on the board. But still, when you look at their home form you see an impressive seventeen match winning streak. Saracens are 1/5 odds-on to extend that in this fixture.
But they may get a stern challenge. It was almost exactly a year to the day that Harlequins last visited Saracens. They left empty-handed. They are sitting third in the Premiership and trail second-placed Saracens by ten points. Quins though were on a blistering run of form with a five-match winning streak going in the league. That was ended at home to Gloucester in round sixteen. But they have won their last two away games and the bookmakers have a generous +11 handicap at 10/11 on them.
Italy v Finland
Euro 2020 Qualifiers – 7.45 pm
Sky Sports
Italy badly need to get something going. They misfired in their attempts to get to the 2018 World Cup and have been stuck in rebuild mode since. They still appear to be nothing more than a work in progress. So this opening Euro 2020 qualifier is going to be important for them. They need some big momentum after drawing each of their last four home fixtures. The Azzurri are 3/10 odds-on favourites to win, but they aren’t in hot form and have only scored three goals in their last five games.
In the Nations league, they finished sandwiched between Portugal and Ukraine only managing 1-1 home draws against those two. Italy have taken just the two wins in their last eight internationals, both of those 1-0 victories. But they’ll never expect to come under a tremendous amount of pressure against Finland. The Finnish have lost three of their last four away games but did take a 1-0 success in Sweden in early January. Before that slump in form, they were on a five-match winning streak. Finland do have six clean sheets in their last nine. This may be way tighter than expended and leading bookmakers have this at 7/10 to go under 2.5 goals to reflect that.
Spain v Norway
Euro 2020 Qualifiers – 7.45 pm
Sky Sports
Spain will be looking for a strong qualification campaign after not having made it past the round of sixteen at the 2018 World Cup. They get what appears to be a comfortable home opener on the road to Euro 2020 as they host Norway on Saturday. Spain have lost two of their last three played through, going down against England and Croatia in the Nations League.
Remarkably though those are the only two defeats (over 90 minutes) that they have suffered since exiting Euro 2016 against Italy. Norway lost both games against Spain the last time they were together, which was in the Euro 2004 qualifiers. The Norwegians do have a bit of form with a W4 D1 L1 record in their last six. It’s been a while since they have met someone of Spain’s calibre though. To highlight how comfortable the bookmakers expect this to be for Spain, the Spaniards are 19/20 for a -2 Asian Handicap.
Gibraltar v Ireland
Euro 2020 Qualifiers – 5.00 pm
Sky Sports
How badly the Irish need a lift in current form. They are in a bit of a slump and have tough battles ahead with Switzerland and Austria in their Euro 2020 qualification group to come as well. The Irish have failed to win any of their last six played (D3 L3) and they have taken just one victory in their last nine. The goals have badly dried up for the Irish too as they have scored just one goal in their last four internationals.
During the UEFA Nations league, they finished bottom of their group with only two points and one goal from four matches against Wales and Denmark. But still, they are taking on a Gibraltar side who have conceded ten goals in their last two games, heavy defeats against Armenia and Macedonia. Can Ireland get it right on the night? They won their one previous trip to the Rock 4-0. But the top bookmakers are being a bit more conservative with a 4/1 odds on a 3-0 win for the men in green.
