FC Lahti and VPS Vaasa meet in Kisapuisto, in a match for the 11th round of the Veikkausliiga. In this stadium, the history of direct confrontations is favorable to the home team, which records 2 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss in the last 5 matches. In fact, the last time these two teams played a match at this stadium was on 04-28-2016, in a match for Veikkausliiga that ended with FC Lahti’s victory by (4-0). The goals of the match were scored by J. Tuominen (12 ‘), P. Kärkkäinen (32’), A. Paananen (71 ‘) and Fareed Sadat (89’) for FC Lahti. Despite being a match between 4th and 6th of the table, it is actually a match between the 2nd classified in home games and the 8th as a visitor.
Lahti:
After 5 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss, the home team is currently in the 4 th position, with 18 points won. In the last match, they have won in an away match against IFK Mariehamn by (1-2), after in the previous match they have tied (0-0) at home, against RoPS Rovaniemi. This is a team that usually makes good use of the home advantage, since they have won 10 points in away matches, with 5 goals scored and 5 conceded, against 6 points won at their stadium, with 6 goals scored and 2 conceded. For the championship, FC Lahti won 10 points out of 12 possible, after 3 wins and 1 draw in the last 4 matches they played in their stadium.
For this competition, they have not lost any of the last 4 home matches.
The Lahti come to this game with a victory in the field of Mariehamn, by 1-2, totaling the fifth consecutive game without losing in the Finnish championship. Due to the good start of the championship, the locals are still fighting for the top positions of this competition. In this game against the VPS, coach Toni Korkeakunnas is expected to play in a 4-3-3 classic, privileging football possession and organized flank attacks. Henri Anier, player who usually occupies the most advanced position, is the best marker of this formation, with 4 goals. For this game the coach can count on all the players.
VPS:
After 3 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses, the away team is currently in the 6 th position, with 13 points won. In the last match, they have lost in an away match against KuPS Kuopio by (0-2), after in the previous match they have tied tied in an away match against Ilves, by (0-0). This is a team that usually makes good use of the home advantage, since they have won 5 points in away matches and 8 at their stadium, with 3 goals scored and 2 conceded at home, against 8 goals scored and 8 conceded at home. In the last 10 away matches VPS Vaasa has 2 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses. They have not been very strong defensively, since they have suffered goals in 7 of the last 10 matches, but their offense has scored frequently, since they have scored goals in 7 of the last 10 matches for this competition. In their home matches there is a tendency for few goals, since 17 of the last 41 matches have ended with Under 1,5 goals.
The VPS comes to this game with a defeat at home against the KuPS, by 0-2, thus adding the third game followed without winning in this competition. We emphasize that the visitors still have not added any defeat away from home. On this visit to the Lahti stadium, coach Petri Vuorinen must act with a more defensive strategy, exploring only the counterattack. The Finn Strandvall is the best score of the VPS, with 5 goals scored. The defensive sector is one of the strong points of this formation, since it suffered on average 0.67 goals per game in this condition. Everything indicates that the foreign trainer can not count on Kujanpaa, a player recovering from injury.
PREDICTION: Lahti to win @ 1.75
