Shakhtyor Soligorsk vs. Slutsk Odds, Prediction, and Pick – Belarusian Premier League, April 17

One of the surprise teams of the season so far goes up against one of the more established clubs in the Belarusian Premier League as Slutsk makes the short trip to Soligorsk to take on Shakhtyor in a local derby.

The home side is in more need of the points, but Slutsk could catapult itself to the top of the table with a win and other results going its way over the weekend. I’ve broken the match down below in this Shakhtyor Soligorsk vs. Slutsk betting preview.

BetOnline is obviously expecting the home side to assert its authority here and pick up the three points. But if anything, it is Slutsk that has been more impressive so far this year, and the odds for a draw or even an away win look to be very attractive.

Shakhtyor won the cup last year and finished third in the league to qualify for Europe, so will have gone into this season high on confidence and hoping for another successful campaign. But things haven’t gone quite to plan. Just one win in the first four games — and a two-goal deficit in the cup semifinal to make up in the second leg with Dynamo Brest — is not what was expected.

Goals have not been a feature of Shakhtyor’s games so far, with just two scored and one conceded in the four league games. There were a lot of attacking players brought in over the offseason, so perhaps they need some time to bed in. But while the team waits for that to happen, more and more points are being dropped.

Slutsk will hope that it can take advantage of that inaction at Soligorsk. Its season has started far better, with two wins and a draw from its first four fixtures. Three of those games have been at home, though, so that could well be a factor to take into consideration.

The visitors tend to be involved in higher-scoring games, too, and it has the highest goals tally in the entire league at the moment. New signing Souleymane Koanda is the leading goal getter, even though he is a central defender. But the sharing around of goals in the squad is another positive and could be a problem for the Soligorsk defenders here.

With the way the opening rounds of the season have gone for these two — and the type of odds offered by BetOnline — I like the look of Slutsk here. It would be a surprise scoreline purely looking at the histories of the clubs, but I feel the visitors have made the far better start to the season, and that good fortune can continue here.