This weekend in European soccer (12-14 December)

Premier League

What a weekend is ahead of us with some very interesting games in the premier league to come.

Tottenham Hotsupr vs. Manchester United
A very interesting game between the spurs that probably didn´t have two stable matches with the sam squad and manager from the beginning of the season. Recent transfers with Croatian Modric being the highlight of them still didn´t pay off and the pressure is incresing. On the other hand things aren´t that calm for Manchester United with fan calls that starting to compare the Berbatov deal to the one with Juan Veron. Anything can probably happen in this game which will be very interesting to watch.
When reviewing what the online community at hunchers.com are saying on this game we can see that the consensus prediction is that Man United will win this game 2-1. 63% think that they will win, around 26% say that the game will end in a draw and 11% are saying that Tottenham will win.

Middlesbrough vs. Arsenal

Current consensus prediction is that this game will end in a 1-1 draw. Although almost 47% of the users think that the young and improving gunners will take this game having a lot of players returning from injuries.

Liverpool vs. Hull

The community is pretty much convinced that the Reds will continue their solid performance in the permiership with a win 2-1 over Hull. A hard number of 73% think that Liverpool will win this game.

Chelsea vs. West Ham

A solid 95% of the predictions! say that Chelsea will win this game easily. Current consensus prediction is 2-0 to Chelsea.

El Clasico

One of the most interesting matches of this week is played in the spanish league (primera division) between the two legendary clubs of Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barcelona are coming to this game as the favroites and suprisingly the last two years champions from Madrid are the underdog.

But could the wind direction change in this game for Madrid?

Historically that has been the case for this games, they set statements about who is more serious this season. Madrid had just replace the manager position with Huande Ramos taking over after the end of the Schuster area. In addition, it looks like finally Madrid are building a team for a longer run with the latest transfer of Netherlands super talent Klaas-Jan Huntelaar that will start playing for Madrid in January 2009.

Currently the odds at hunchers.com are in favor of Barcelona for a 2-1 win at this game in the Camp Nou.

Can wisdom of crowds predict future game scores?

A look at last weekend predictions
A lot was said about utilizing the wisdom of crowds to various fields. at hunchers.com we take it a little step further. We take all the predictions that the members of the community posted on a certain game, mix up together using our proprietary algorithm that is based on past success of active members (sometimes success within the same league or on previous games of the same team) and produce what we call the consensus prediction. In the last post I gave some of the consensus predictions of the central European soccer games. Here they are with the final results:

Bayern Munchen - Hoffenheim (prediction was 2-1, final result was exactly the same)

Bolton - Chelsea (prediction was 2-1 to Chelsea, final result 2-0 to Chelsea)

Arsenal - Wigan (prediction was 2-0 to Arsenal, final result was 1-0 to Arsenal)

Blackburn - Liverpool (prediction was 1-0 to Liverpool, final result was 3-1 to Liverpool)

Manchester United - Sunderland (prediction was 3-0 to Manchester, final result was 1-0 to ManU)

Fulham - Manchester City (prediction was 1-1, final result was exactly the same)

The bottom line is that in all the games the community predicted correctly the winner/loser/draw and 2 games it predicted the exact result.
Not bad . . .

Who will qualify to the top 16 in the Champions League?
In this article I posted at sportingo.com you can find all the scenarios, which teams are still racing for a ticket to the exclusive 16 club and which teams will play for a ticket to the UEFA cup.

This weekend in European Soccer (6-8 December)

Long time has passed since my last post here and I kind of neglected the work. I hope it won´t happen again and that I can keep up with posting my picks and observations towards the coming game weeks of European soccer and more.





Bayern Munchen vs. Hoffenheim (Bundesliga) - Friday, December 5th


Well this game is actually going to start real soon as I write the post. I think that it is one of the most interesting matches of this weekend. Vedad Ibisevic with 17 goals! so far and the Hoffenefim gang are the surprise of the league leading it after 15 matches. Today Hoffeneim will face one of its important challenges. A win over Bayern who is recovering from a bad season start can declare about the serious intentions of this small team to take it all the way this year. A lost here will reopen the title race and can lead to a bad momentum for Hoffeneim and a positive one for Bayern. Reviewing what the Hunchers.com community is saying on this game I see that the consensus prediction is that Bayern will win 2 - 1 and that 89% say that Bayern will win. With such strong odds I will definitely go with Bayern winning 2-1 as the final game result.





Bolton vs. Chelse (Premier League) - Saturday, December 6th

A crucial game for Chelsea. A lost here and they can put themselves in a situation in which they are chasing Liverpool and Abramovic´s club has proven to be not working very well under pressure. Bolton on the other hand are having a pretty good season and will put up a good fight to be one of the top 5 in order to be in a reasonable place for one of the European championships next year. Reviewing what Hunchers.com community members are saying on this game we can see that the majority (61%) think that Chelsea will take this game away. The consensus prediction formula also thinks that Chelsea will take the game 2-1.

Other interesting games and predictions

Arsenal - Wigan (2-0 to Arsenal)

Blakburn - Liverpool (0-1 to Liverpool)

Man United - Sunderland (3 - 0 to Man U)

Fulham - Manchester City (1 - 1)

See you next time,

Riko R.