Donegal vs Galway Prediction, Betting Odds & Tips - All Ireland SFC Semi-Final

🏆Donegal vs Galway Prediction

Donegal versus Galway is an intriguing All Ireland semi final that could go either way. Both sides have been brilliant this year both in attack and in defence. It is a hard game to predict, with both sides having won their provincial championships, with Galway winning the Connacht championship and Donegal winning the Ulster championship. Galway are unbeaten in the All Ireland group phase, and knockout phase winning 2 group games and drawing once. They then followed this up with victories versus Monaghan and versus Dublin last time out. Donegal suffered a defeat in the All Ireland group phase versus Cork but were victorious with ease versus Tyrone and Clare. They were victorious in their quarter-final over Leinster finalists Louth by a margin of 8 points. Galway will be full of confidence after beating Dublin the last time out. Over the last decade, Dublin have been the best team in the country, only suffering 3 championship defeats in the time period since winning the All Ireland in 2011 up until last time, with Galway handing them just their 4th championship defeat in 13 years. As a result of this, beating Dublin will be like an All Ireland victory for Galway, and it will be hard to replicate this. This victory will have taken a lot out of Galway both physically and emotionally and they also have some injury problems with Shane Walsh and Sean Kelly doubts after coming off injured versus Dublin with hamstring injuries. Donegal have been very strong this year, and no doubt manager Jim McGuinness will have a plan to deal with a potentially confident Galway, so I am going for a Donegal victory in a tight and tense encounter.

🔎 Donegal vs Galway Performance Analysis

With regard to performance analysis, there are two very important statistics in modern Gaelic football. These are turnovers lost, which are possessions that are lost either in the tackle or by an error in possession. The other is score efficiency, which is the percentage of scores per shot taken. If you have a low number of turnovers and a high score percentage, there is a good chance you will be victorious in a game of Gaelic football. Last time out versus Louth, Donegal had 13 turnovers lost. Donegal were very efficient in attack, taking a total of 32 shots scoring 24, which is a score efficiency of 75%. Galway were brilliant in possession versus Dublin only having 9 turnovers lost. They were slightly less efficient than Donegal, taking 26 shots, scoring 17, which is a score efficiency of 65%. There is not much to split these two sides in the statistics.

💯 Donegal vs Galway Betting Odds

There is not much splitting the odds from the bookmakers for this one. Galway come into the game off a huge victory over Dublin, while Donegal have been brilliant all year, only suffering one defeat in the league and championship in 2024. Galway are the slight favourites for this one, and this can be seen on the best Irish "https://www.betinireland.ie/">betting sites.

🏅Donegal vs Galway Match Winner

The odds from selected bookmakers can be seen below.

Result
Donegal to Win	2.25	TBC
Galway to Win	1.83	TBC
Draw	8.50	TBC

✔️ Donegal vs Galway Betting Tips

Donegal versus Galway is an intriguing All Ireland Semi final match and here are some tips if you are unsure how the match will transpire.

Tip 1: Donegal to Win

The odds for this one are pretty similar, but Galway are the slight favourites amongst the bookmakers, most likely as a result of their victory versus defending All Ireland champions Dublin. Donegal have suffered only one defeat in all of 2024 in 15 matches, drawing once in the league and winning the other 13 games, although one of these victories was in a penalty shootout. Galway have been unbeaten in the championship to this point, drawing once and winning 7 in the Connacht and All Ireland championships. This game is so hard to predict and could go either way, so to predict this one, I am going to look at the scoring averages of both sides in the All Ireland phase of the championship. Donegal have played four games in the All Ireland championship, while Galway have played 5 games. Donegal have scored a total of 3-83 across four games, which is an average of 0.75-20.75, which can be rounded 1-21. Galway have scored a total of 3-72 across 5 games, which is an average of 0.6-14.4 which can be rounded to 1-14. The averages state that Donegal will win by 7 points but I believe it will be a tighter game than they suggest but they do suggest Donegal will be victorious. This game is a hard one to call, so to use the averages as a guide, we can guess that Donegal will win, which can be best found on DirectionBet Sport with odds of 2.25.

Tip 2: Donegal margin of victory 1 to 3 points

As mentioned, I expect this game to be a tight and tense encounter. This is an All Ireland semi-final, so it is very unlikely that either team would steamroll the other. These two teams are at this stage of the All Ireland championship on merit, so there will not be much between the two sides. Donegal score an average of 1-21 and concede an average of 1-12 which is an average victory of 9 points. Galway score an average of 1-14 per game and concede an average of 0-13, which is a difference of 4 points. Donegal’s average is greatly skewed by the 2-23 to 0-5 victory they had versus Clare in their final group game, where they were already through and Clare were already eliminated. Galway are unbeaten in the championship and Donegal have only lost once in 2024 so neither of these sides are used to the feeling of defeat. This will mean that this will be a tight game but the averages are in favour of Donegal both in attack and in defence. Boylesports are offering a margin of victory of 1 to 3 points. This is a good bet as you have three potential margin of victories that can still win you your bet and is definitely worth a punt if you have any free bets.

Tip 3 Donegal to Qualify

This one is an interesting bet because the odds for Donegal to qualify are not too dissimilar to the odds for them to win the game. This game will most likely be a tight game that could potentially go to Extra Time or even penalties. If this is the case, then betting on either team to qualify as opposed to win could be the way to go. If you bet on either team to win, the bet will not continue into any potential Extra Time or penalty shootout, but it will if you use the market on either team to qualify. The bet will carry over and keep you in it into extra time and penalties. I believe Donegal will defeat Galway in a very tight game either in normal time or extra time. The odds on DirectionBet Sport for a Donegal win is 2.25. These are good odds for a team with 13 wins in their last 15 games, but their odds to qualify with Direction Bet is 2.00, which are not too different, so it would be a good bet to pursue.

• Tip 1: Donegal to Win - price of 2.25 at DirectionBet sports.

• Tip 2: Donegal margin of victory 1 to 3 points - price of 3.75 with Boylesports

• Tip 3: Donegal to Qualify - price of 2.00 with DirectionBet

1️⃣ Donegal Update

2️⃣ Galway Update

👕 Donegal vs Galway - Potential Lineups

✒️ Jack Guing – Expert Tipster

Jack Guing has a strong knowledge of the sport of GAA through the lens of performance analysis with multiple GAA teams. He holds a master's degree in sports performance. He has a huge love of all things sports, especially golf, soccer and GAA. He uses statistics and performance analysis in order to predict the outcome of matches and events.