HJK Helsinki vs. Inter Turku

            I don’t know how many finnish league experts expected Inter Turku will lead the league after 17 rounds . They are doing great and are undefeated home and away . Actually in last 20 games played ( including friendlies , cups ) , Inter Turku was deafeated only once . This is a remarkable performance . The only team that managed to defeat Inter Turku is HJK Helsinki in a cup game , 1-0 .

            HJK Helsinki is one of the best teams in Finland and are expected to do more this year and maybe win the league . They are currently 3^rd placed , 5 points less than Inter Turku . This is a very important game for HJK and they need to win in order to hope for title this year , with only 8 rounds remaining till finish .

            HJK is one of the best home teams in Finland for many years . They put great pressure on opponents ( they have artificial pitch ) . They have one important player out for this game : Aho , important defender ( many say is their best player ) , but he is missing for some time , this is not the first game he is missing .

            Inter Turku also has one injured player , also defender . To be honest about this team , I don’t understand how they achieved first place . I saw them playing against Lahti last round and Lahti put great pressure on them , almost whole game . I didn’t felt Inter Turku was playing home in that game ( I had a bet on Inter Turku ) , they were many times close to concede goals  , looked shaky in defense and if I didn’t knew they were no 1 in Finland I would say they are middle table team . Perhaps it was just one bad game for them but I won’t trust them again today .

H2H ;

19th Jun 08 C HJK Helsinki v Inter Turku 1 - 0

15th May 08 L Inter Turku v HJK Helsinki 1 - 1

24th Sep 07 L HJK Helsinki v Inter Turku 2 - 0

28th Jun 07 L Inter Turku v HJK Helsinki 1 - 1

3rd Aug 06 L HJK Helsinki v Inter Turku 5 - 0

18th May 06 L Inter Turku v HJK Helsinki 0 - 1

14th Sep 05 L HJK Helsinki v Inter Turku 2 - 1

28th May 05 L Inter Turku v HJK Helsinki 0 - 0

12th Aug 04 L HJK Helsinki v Inter Turku 0 - 1

30th May 04 L Inter Turku v HJK Helsinki 1 - 4

27th Jul 03 L HJK Helsinki v Inter Turku 2 – 1

My bet :

HJK Helsinki – Inter Turku AH 0:1/4 home win @1.98 Pinnacle 8/10