The football league semi-finals take place at Croke Park this Sunday and thankfully they have conjured up two very interesting ties, both of which should provide us with two very different types of games.

Up first is Kerry and Roscommon which provides us with quite a novel pairing, followed by Donegal and Dublin which, if recent history is anything to go by, won't quite provide us with such a novel style of football.

Looking at the points totals provided for both games by the bookies tells us a lot about what type of games the bookmakers are expecting on Sunday.

Roscommon/Kerry has a total of 35.5 points where as the Dubs and Donegal have a much more stingy 29.5 points. This would suggest an open free-flowing game in the first game, while a much tighter second game.

Taking these totals into account goes a long way in providing reasoning for this weekend's NAP, which is Donegal +2.5 points at halftime at 8/11 with Bet 365.

Donegal have been in very decent positions at half-time or shortly after the beginning of the second half this year.

Even during their four consecutive defeats in the league they were level with Kerry away from home, ahead of Monaghan, came back strongly against Roscommon and. Importantly, were beating the Dubs at half-time a number of weeks ago.

As well as these positive half-time results in 2016, in the 2015 league meeting with Dublin they were one point ahead of Donegal at half-time, and famously were ahead at half-time when conquering the city men in their 2014 championship semi-final. All of which suggests +2.5 handicap is quite generous.

Reading an interview from Tomas Brady during the week has provided me a fascinating insight into how Dublin now approach the types of challenges that teams like Donegal pose. He stated that "In those games it is about staying patient. It could take 50 or 60 minutes to break it down".

From this I take that Jim Gavin has been drumming into his players that they need to be patient and not go all-out attack before half-time, which previously gave teams like Donegal a chance to hit them on the counter attack. All of these variables point to Donegal +2.5 points at half-time being a super bet.

Our second bet of the weekend again relates to the points total that has been provided by the bookies, 35.5 points is quite high and I have to say that I agree with Paddy Power in that I agree the first game will be free flowing and high scoring, although I don't quite think that betting on over the points total presents enough value to warrant a bet.

Kerry and Roscommon have been the top scorers in the division so far, both have been scoring and conceding plenty of goals throughout the league, especially the Rossies who bagged an impressive eight goals to date.

Boylesports are offering 10/11 for both teams to score a goal, the fact that the game is in Croke Park and having seen the styles of play that have been on show from both sides to date would indicate that the chances of goals are quite high, and 10/11 is quite a nice price considering this.

Recommended bets:

• Donegal +2.5 halftime handicap @8/11 with Bet 365 (NAP)
   
• Kerry and Roscommon both to score a goal @ 10/11 with Boylesports

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