Birmingham City V Liverpool Betting: Sunday, 4th April

Birmingham City V Liverpool

Sunday, 4^th April – 15:00 GMT

Birmingham City

League Position: 9th

Recent Form: WDLLD

Alex McLeish will try and make his team run rings around a Liverpool side which just might be feeling the strain after a long night in Portugal on Thursday. The Reds will of had just two days to rest up after their Europa League tie with Benfica whereas Birmingham have had no action since their weekend draw with Arsenal. Will ‘Brummie’ make their stamina superiority pay and avoid suffering their first defeat against a ‘Big Four’ team this season.

Should Birmingham avoid defeat to Liverpool then they will have completed a pretty stunning set of results in that not one of the so called ‘Big Four’ have beaten Birmingham City at St. Andrews this season, with Chelsea, Manchester United and more recently Arsenal all being held to frustrating draws. You would have to say Liverpool are the easiest team of the lot to face judging by their position in the table, with Birmingham just nine points behind the Reds in the table, but Birmingham have been well below par with their team displays of late and now find themselves up against a Liverpool side with renowned optimism after a superb team performance in their last game against Sunderland.

Alex McLeish will care little about Liverpool’s fortunes and more about Birmingham’s, while he will need to resurrect some form after a four match run without a league win. In fact, Kevin Philips’, now officially known as ‘Super-Kev, the Super Sub’, late goal against Arsenal last weekend ensured the club didn’t suffer it’s third successive league defeat. In the end the point would have satisfied both the fans and the manager as Birmingham did very little in a fixture Arsenal should have wrapped way before Philip’s late sucker punch. However, it’s those type of results, those typical battling comebacks that often builds confidence and McLeish will be hoping to build upon their 1-1 draw with The Gunners by getting something out of this game with Liverpool.

Birmingham do have a few hurdles they must cross though in order to land their first win over one of England’s elite teams. The first being their run of four games without a win and the second being their two game drought at home. Both would appear minuscule problems for some sides in the league but Birmingham are a team that thrive on positive runs of results and need plenty of inner confidence and momentum. That last ditch effort against Arsenal might set them up nicely for a big display against a Liverpool team they did draw 2-2 with at Anfield, but that’s a pretty big ‘IF’ and we actually, believe it or not, think Birmingham could be on the verge of their first home defeat since September, 2009.

Interesting Fact: Birmingham City haven’t lost at home, St. Andrews, since September 26^th, 2009. A run of twelve games without a loss at home in the Premier League. They’ve also not managed more than one goal in any home fixture against a team inside the top seven.

Liverpool

League Position: 6th

Recent Form: WLWLW 

After falling to a 2-1 defeat in Portugal on Thursday in the Europa League, Liverpool will go in search of three points needed to keep up their bid for some more European football next season. At this rate Liverpool look likely to finish in the Europa League places, which is an unbearable scenario around Anfield, so victory is a must for the Reds although they’ll be hard pressed to get the win at St Andrews against a Birmingham side who’ve not lost to a ‘Big Four’ team all season.

Rafael Benitez will be aware of Birmingham’s imperious record at St Andrews of just two defeats all season, but he will also know dropped points would be catastrophic as it would seriously harm their push for a fourth place finish. Liverpool already find themselves four points a drift of Tottenham in fourth and yet they’ve played a game more so it would be stating the obvious in saying this, as well as the rest of their remaining league fixtures, are must win games as one more defeat could be curtains in terms of landing Champions League for next season. 

Liverpool’s away form though has been terrible having not managed a win away from Merseyside in the whole of 2010 thus far. Travelling fans are having to endure a six match away run without winning while that ugly looking streak has ever chance of continuing against what is a very tough home team in Birmingham. However, like we said above, Liverpool can’t even contemplate any more slip ups but will that equate into Benitez going hell for leather just like he did against Sunderland in Liverpool’s last league encounter. The Reds were superb against Sunderland last Sunday at Anfield as they tore through the Sunderland back four like knife through butter. It was basically shooting practice for Liverpool, which was ideal as their very next league outing is arguably their toughest left to play.

Last week, Rafael Benitez binned his usual conservative tactics of having two holding midfielders and instead brought Gerrard back into the heart of the Liverpool midfield, and Liverpool and Benitez himself reaped the benefits in a comfortable victory. The Reds were a true sight to behold that day but we would put our house on Benitez reverting back to his old negative ways at St Andrews. If he does then we wouldn’t feel at all comfortable backing Liverpool at what is extremely slim odds considering their away form is pretty woeful and they do enter this competitive away fixture off the back of a European defeat just three days ago.

Match Verdict: Draw – 3.75 SkyBet

Birmingham were lucky to escape their fixture with Arsenal last weekend with a point after a below par display from them, but this weekend they welcome another top four club in Liverpool, although they’ll fancy their chances a whole lot more in this contest. The Reds are in terrible form on the road and have yet to register an away win in 2010. A trip to St Andrews doesn’t represent the easiest of opportunities to scratch that poor run and so preference on our part is for the draw. We could quite easily envisage this ending in a stalemate as neither will over commit nor will they give a lot of time and space away, so the draw in our eyes looks somewhat inevitable. To back up our claims, the previous five clashes between these two have finished in a draw, while the last two St Andrews clashes have ended in 2-2 scores. We’re thinking along the lines of 0-0 so we would take a 2-2.

Match Odds:

Birmingham City – 5.00 SkyBet

Draw – 3.75 SkyBet

Liverpool – 1.83 Bet365

SoccerBetting Value Tip: Fernando Torres FGS – 4.50 Coral