Leicester meet Villa in the EFL Cup, Nadal faces Thiem

Leicester travel to Aston Villa for their Carabao Cup clash 2nd leg, while Simona Halep and Rafa Nadal aim for the Australian Open semi-finals – it’s the Spread Bets of the Day!

1. Aston Villa v Leicester – Kelechi Iheanacho SMM, 30-36
Last week’s 4-1 hammering of West Ham appeared to get Leicester back on track, after a tough transition from 2019 to 2020. Saturday’s 1-0 win over Brentford in the FA Cup helped them secure back-to-back victories, but wasn’t necessarily the biggest confidence builder.

What is worrying for the Foxes is that Jamie Vardy both still isn’t 100% after suffering a gluteal injury against West Ham, and regardless hasn’t scored in his last 5 appearances.

With the semi-final finely balanced after a 1-1 draw in the 1st leg, Brendan Rodgers would ideally want to rely on the Premier League’s top scorer. Instead he may have to turn to Kelechi Iheanacho, who nabbed his 7th goal in only 12 games against the Bees at the weekend, and got the equaliser against Villa 3 weeks ago.

The 23-year-old travels to Villa Park at a SMM spread of 30-36, compared to Vardy at 50-58 and Ayoze Perez at 28-34. The hosts, meanwhile, have Anwar El Ghazi at 19-23, and their top scorer Jack Grealish at 18-22.

2. Anett Kontaveit v Simona Halep – Halep/Kontaveit Match Supremacy, 5.5-8.5
Alongside world no. 1 Ashleigh Barty, Simona Halep is the only woman from the top 10 seeds left in Australian Open. The Romanian is chasing her 2nd semi-final in Oz, having lost in the 2018 final to Caroline Wozniacki.

As for her opponent, this is the furthest Anett Kontaveit has ever gotten in a grand slam tournament, her previous cap being the 4th round. The 24-year old’s biggest result of the competition so far was her 3rd round demolition of no. 6 seed Belinda Bencic.

Can she take out no. 4 Halep? Spreadex are offering a Halep/Kontaveit Match Supremacy spread of 5.5-8.5 (where the winner gets 10 points plus 5 further points per set won by).

3. Rafael Nadal v Dominic Thiem – Name the Finalists Nadal & Djokovic, 57-62
Rafa Nadal has extra reason to want to win the 2020 Australian Open. Victory would put him level with Roger Federer in terms of total grand slams, on 20, giving him the chance to surpass the Swiss supremo later this year.

To get to the semis he needs to beat 5th seed Dominic Thiem. After a bit of trouble in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, the Austrian breezed past Gael Monfils 6-2 6-4 6-4. He also has beaten Nadal 4 times in the past (though the Spaniard himself has 9 victories).

Nadal is the clear favourite, at a Match Supremacy of 8-11. No doubt he would also be expected to beat Stan Wawrinka or Alexander Zverev in the semis. So will he make the final? And who would be his opponent? If you think Nadal will meet Djokovic on Sunday, then buy a Name the Finalists Nadal & Djokovic binary spread of 57-62.

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