Football Bet of the Day: Title race to tighten up

Red Bulls to keep charging

Arminia Bielefeld v RB Leipzig
Friday 19 March, 19:30
Live on BT Sport and Betfair Live Video

It's been a week of agonising near-misses, and even though Atlante and Alebrijes de Oaxaca delivered two of the three goals we needed inside an hour, they never came up with the strike that would land our Over 2.5 Goals bet. We take it on the chin and move on.

We're heading to Germany's City of Linen tonight, Bielefeld, where they used to produced linen banknotes known as Stoffgeld. They also have a Bundesliga team, Arminia, named after the German chieftain Arminius who defeated the Romans in the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD.

Now that you're up to date with the history and the culture, what of the football? Arminia have just won at Bayer Leverkusen, securing a first win under new coach Frank Kramer, but I'm not entirely convinced by a side that is still deep in relegation trouble.

Bielefeld have lost five of their last eight league matches, and on Friday night they face an RB Leipzig side that's pushing hard for the title.

Leipzig have won their last three top-flight away games 3-0, and they have a useful knack of duffing up the lesser lights. They have won six of their last seven league games, and they have leaked just two goals in that spell. In their ten matches against teams currently in the bottom six, they have won eight, drawn one and lost just once.

Bielefeld have been smacked 3-0 by top-six sides Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund recently, and I think they'll be outclassed here. I'll back RB Leipzig -1.5 on the Asian Handicap at 2.0521/20.