Dire Dawa vs St. George Prediction: St. George to be crowned champions

The final game of the Ethiopian Premier League will take place at Dire Dawa Stadium, and it will feature a contest between the 10th-placed Dire Dawa and the first-placed St. George. The home team will want to wrap up their season on a high note, but the visiting team from St. George will be looking to celebrate their league championship with a win here.

The performance of Dire Dawa up to this point has been very erratic, backed up by the fact that this team has triumphed in just one of their most recent three matches. Dire Dawa did well to halt their losing streak against Adama City and Welayta Dicha in matches that ended 1-2 and 3-1 by defeating Arba Menche on the road 1-0 in their most recent match. These two matches had respective final scores of 1-2 and 3-1. Biniam Getachew scored the game's lone goal in the 70th minute, which proved to be the decisive factor after the first half of play finished with a score of 0-0. The past five games for Dire Dawa have resulted in seven goals scored by the team. The team that will be playing at home comes into this match having amassed 39 points through 29 games played so far this season, having scored 41 goals while allowing 46 goals.

St. George will win the Ethiopian Premier League title for the fourth season in a row, and this time around, it is important to acknowledge that this particular team has been outstanding. The visiting team had only lost one previous match in 2023 coming into this matchup. That defeat came against Defense Force in the middle of May in a match that was decided by a score of 1-0. Chernet Gugsa and Ismail Ouro-Agoro scored the goals that propelled St. George to a comfortable victory on the road in their most recent match against Hadiya Hossana. The goals were scored in the 21st and 49th minutes of play, respectively. In fact, St. George enters this competition with a six-point advantage over Bahir Dar Kenema, who is now in second place. This season, St. George has scored 53 goals, which is the highest in the league. Meanwhile, they have only given up 20 goals in 29 matches, which is the fewest number of goals allowed thus far this season.

From the year 2020 until the present, St. George and Dire Dawa have faced off against one another seven times. St. George came out victorious in both of those contests, both coming in their most recent encounters. However, Dire Dawa only had one win, which occurred in May of 2021 and had a score of 1-0. In the meantime, there have been four matches that have resulted in draws. Three of those games had identical scores of 1-1, while the fourth draw resulted in a score of 0-0. We have never seen more than two goals scored in one of their contests at any point in their history.

Given the history of these two teams and the fact that neither team places a significant amount of importance on this match, we should expect a close and intense game. In the meantime, we should anticipate a number of defensive moves, as both teams are expected to focus on winning here. St. George will seek to extend their unbeaten record to six, while Dire Dawa will undoubtedly want to at least earn a draw on their home ground. In spite of this, the odds do not sway my opinion, but I do believe that St. George has a higher chance of winning this match, considering how consistent they have been throughout the season and how they will want their season to come to a close.

In addition, the fact that each of their most recent seven matches resulted in fewer than three goals scored indicates that we should prepare ourselves for a contest with few goals.