IFK Varnamo vs IK Frej Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

This is a real basement battle in the Swedish second tier. 12 games into the campaign, the clubs currently occupy two of the bottom three positions with Varnamo propping up the table while Frej are only marginally better off, currently in the relegation play-off position.

Regardless of the result here, Varnamo will stay bottom. However it’s a simply massive game for them and they really need all the points to at least close the gap on the sides above them and avert the real danger that they could be cut adrift. League seasons are only 30 games in Sweden and with just one win to their name so far, Varnamo can’t afford to leave themselves with too much to do in the second half of the campaign.

Varnamo actually finished 6th last term so it has been a huge decline from them but Frej are very much used to slogging it out at the wrong end of the division. They are currently 14th, exactly where they finished last term when they avoided the drop by the finest of margins, winning a play-off tie on away goals.

Therefore it’s no surprise to see them struggling but given the opposition, it’s a bit puzzling why they are as long as 3/1 for the win here. Varnamo have lost all of their last 5 matches and are winless in 8 games. They’ve lost 67% of their home league games this term and in that sort of form, it would be madness to back them at ‘odds on’ for the win here.

That’s even more the case when you consider Frej are actually in pretty good form right now and look to have recovered from a wretched start to the campaign. They’ve only lost 1 of their last 5 matches, with 8 of their 9 points this term coming from those games. Even that defeat was a narrow 2-1 loss in a tough away game at GAIS and they will take confidence from having got an excellent point at high-flying Halmstad in their most recent away match.

Going forward, they certainly seem to hold far the greater threat. Frej average 1.25 goals per game this term, a return which would surely be enough to fire them to safety. By contrast Varnamo have only mustered 0.58 and seem clueless in the final third.

All things considered, backing Frej Double Chance looks like the way to go here while going for Frej to Win also looks good at long odds.