Newly promoted underdogs have similarities to Leicester City.
Jamie Vardy is taking Italian lessons as he starts a new phase of his career at newly promoted Serie A team Cremonese, but he insists football has “its own language” that transcends all barriers.
At 38 most top footballers are slowing down, but Vardy reckons he’s still got plenty to offer. “For me, age is just a number,” he said at his new club last week.
Vardy might make his debut when Cremonese (3.15) visit Verona (2.50) for a Monday night Serie A clash.
Those odds won’t bother Vardy as he was a lynchpin in the Leicester City team that famously defied the bookmakers’ price of 5000-1 to win the English Premier League in 2016.
Speedster Vardy scored 24 goals that season and hopes to do something similar with Cremonese – a side that shares many similarities with the Leicester underdogs.
Betway has Vardy at 3.95 to score sometime during the game, but odds of 9.00 for him to score the last goal of the match might be more appealing to punters, especially as the Yorkshireman is more likely to be introduced from the bench in his first experience of Italian football.
Even if Vardy doesn’t play on Monday, there will be plenty of interest in the game as the striker has been a popular figure in world football. Many Leicester (and other clubs’) fans are adopting Cremonese as their second team.
A second fixture in Italy on Monday night sees Como (1.66) host Genoa (5.80).
Como, coached and part-owned by former Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas, are an upwardly mobile outfit after being bought by the wealthy Hartono brothers, who have backed the sometime strugglers in the transfer market.
Como started the new season with a bang by beating mighty Lazio but came down to earth with defeat to Bologna. On balance, however, the experts say Como should have the beating of Genoa.
In Spain’s La Liga, there is one Monday night game: Espanyol (2.18) versus Real Mallorca (3.60), with one artificial intelligence model giving the home side a 42% chance of winning after running 10,000 versions of the game based on statistics.
All Betway odd correct at time of publishing and subject to change.
