FA Cup Final Betting

Portsmouth/ Cardiff

There are numerous methods to whet the nation's appetite for the FA Cup final. Talk of "giant killing" always works - the minions of Cardiff battling the Goliaths from Portsmouth. Charismatic former England captain Alan Shearer could take you on a fantastic journey through FA Cup history, before concluding that this year's match will definitely feature some kind of "cup final atmosphere" - thanks Alan, nice one. Or perhaps David James could get drunk and wander through the valleys slurring profanities at frightened farmers, all filmed by the BBC - that would be excellent. Here at Chickendinner, however, we prefer to send the people of Britain into a frenzy of whooping anticipation by using just simple ingredients like facts and statistics, and here's one that will blow your mind: the favourite to score the first goal - Milan Baros - hasn't scored a single goal for Portsmouth. Ever. Have a great day, people. Perhaps go for a picnic?

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Can Portsmouth score?

» Portsmouth are without their two top-scorers this season - Benjani, who scored 12 before being offloaded in January, and Defoe, who scored eight since arriving in the new year

» chickendinner superfact: Without them their highest scorer is Nwankwu Kanu, who has only managed to score six times in thirty games this season.

» David Nugent has scored three goals in twenty-one, two of which came in the Carling Cup, and Milan Baros is yet to score.

» They've only scored six goals in the cup this season, four fewer than Cardiff, and have only once scored more than one goal in a game.

» One of those goals was a penalty, one an own-goal and in the case of Kanu's semi-final winner, it should have been disallowed for a handball in the build-up.

» Portsmouth haven't scored in three games and have scored just two in their last six.

» Pompey also failed to score in ten of their nineteen home league games this season - even relegated Birmingham only failed to score four times.

Where could the goals come from?

» Nobody has scored more than once for Portsmouth in the cup this season, their scorers have been: Diarra, Kranjcar, Nugent, Muntari and Kanu.

» Sol Campbell scored in his last cup final - the 2006 Champions League final.

Over/under betting

» Only one of Portsmouth's last ten games in all competitions has featured over 2.5 goals.

» And only one of Portsmouth's five FA Cup ties have seen over 1.5 goals scored - with four of their five wins finishing 1-0.

» There were over 2.5 goals in each of Cardiff's last five league games BUT their last three FA Cup games all featured under 2.5.

15/05/08

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