FC Helsingor vs Crystal Palace Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Palace kick off their pre-season with a Scandinavian tour and first up is a game in Denmark against FC Helsingor. As you might expect, the Eagles are strong favourites to win the game but the priority at this stage is always to build up fitness and ensure they are ready for the opening day of the Premier League season when they travel to Fulham for a London derby.

FC Helsingor are clearly inferior but they could still prove a tough test, particularly given this will be Palace’s first game of the pre-season. They played in the Danish top flight until last season when they were relegated and they’re currently gearing up for a crack at the Danish second tier where they will be bidding to win promotion.

They are a bit further along in their preparations with the new season commencing for them at the end of this month. Therefore Helsingor could hold a fitness advantage and they’ve performed pretty well so far in their friendly matches. They were winners away to German side Hansa Rostock last time out so should take confidence from that and they ought to at least be competitive here.

The build-up to this game for Palace has been somewhat overshadowed by fears they could lose star man Wilfried Zaha with Borussia Dortmund showing interest. Roy Hodgson will be desperate to hold onto the Ivory Coast international this summer and he is sure to be key to their chances of having a strong season.

They take a pretty strong squad to Scandinavia and will be hungry to get straight back to winning ways having ended last season well, with wins in 4 of their final 5 Premier League matches. However it is now two months since they last played and it would be unrealistic to expect them to simply pick up at the level they were playing at towards the end of the last campaign.

Even though they went down, Helsingor only lost 1 of their final 6 home games of last season and are likely to be much the more motivated side as they get the rare chance to take on Premier League opposition. We can expect wholesale changes from Palace at the break here and they may struggle to find much fluidity so early in pre-season and backing Helsingor Double Chance could be worth a bet.