FA Cup, 3rd round, Thursday, 09.01.2025 at 20:45
The Cottagers have to play Watford at home in the third round of the FA Cup. Unsurprisingly, the Premier League club is clearly ahead in the odds for their home game. However, the home win odds can still be easily combined with a goal bet.
There have not been many wins for the hosts recently. At the same time, they are on a run of eight games without a defeat. In my Fulham Watford betting tip, I see the first division team as mature enough to win this match and expect two to a maximum of five goals. I have this combination in my sights at Merkur Bets.
Anyone who has recently placed a lot of draw bets on Fulham games should have financed a good Christmas bonus around Christmas. Six of the last eight games at FC have ended in draws.
Among them were strong results against the top clubs in the league, 1:1 against Arsenal, 2:2 against Liverpool and a 2:1 win at Chelsea FC. The men in black and white are currently an unpleasant opponent for any team.
Whoever sells so well against the crème de la crème of the world’s best leagues will quite rightly start the FA Cup match at home against Championship side Watford as favorites. The former Premier League club can currently only dream of eight unbeaten games in a row.
The Hornets have lost four of their last five matches, losing 2-1 to Burnley, Cardiff and Sheffield United and 3-1 to Queens Park Rangers. An interim high before three consecutive defeats came in the 2-1 win against Portsmouth.
The 9 odds given to Watford in the Merkur Bets app are appropriate in my eyes, the 1.30 for Fulham almost too high, but definitely worth considering for a combined ticket on Thursday.
Especially as Watford have already conceded five goals in 2025 and do not cut a good figure against the ball, especially away from home. Watford have conceded 26 of their 36 Championship goals away from home
26 goals conceded in just twelve games, one of the worst figures in the 24-team division, with just two wins and two draws. Overall, Watford have the sixth-weakest defense in terms of expected goals.
The two clubs are also worlds apart in terms of their squads. After all, apart from the absence of Tom Dele-Bashiru, the visitors are traveling with a full squad, but Fulham don’t have a full lazaretto either:
Only the defensive midfield could be a little thin on Thursday. But Sander Berge should be back in the squad in time for the game. In the recent 2-2 draw against promoted Ipswich, it was only enough for a 2-2 draw.
Raul Jimenez, the number nine, scored twice, providing his seventh and eighth Premier League goals. Alex Iwobi and Harry Wilson supported him on the wings in head coach Marco Silva’s 3-4-3.
Watford have rotated their system throughout the season, sometimes deploying a back three, sometimes a back four. But even the more defensive option couldn’t prevent the disastrous start to 2025.
Why I’m adding the 2-5 goals to Fulham’s win is the fact that the Cottagers will probably need more than one goal again to make it through to round four. After all, they’ve only kept a clean sheet in one of their last nine games.
And Watford? Have scored in nine of their last eleven games. In view of these figures, the odds for the Watford goal at 1.80 are of course attractive. However, I would go for the goal from both teams at odds of 1.98.
Incidentally, this is also one of the most popular bets at Winamax for this match. However, the home win tip is the most popular. The fact that you can see here which bets are in demand and how the markets are distributed is just one of the many advantages of Winamax.
Among other things, you can look forward to betting tax-free odds here and free betting credit of up to 100 euros awaits new customers after registration. The amount depends on the first deposit, which only needs to be wagered once at 1.05 to withdraw the real money.
Fulham vs Watford, the last duel was a few years ago. The teams have not faced each other before this decade.
In 2018/19, the teams drew 1-1 in London and Watford won the last game to date by a clear 4-1 margin. 2025 is a completely different story, however.
Conclusion: Fulham are much better on track than Watford and have much more quality to offer. Added to this is the home advantage for the team from west London. Away from home, however, not much has gone right for the Championship team so far.
After eight unbeaten games with opponents such as Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal, I see Fulham clearly ahead and do not expect a close 1-0, Watford concede quite a few goals, but also like to score and the Cottagers have rarely had a clean sheet recently.
Therefore, my Fulham Watford tip is: Win Fulham & 2-5 goals!
