0-0, 0-1, 1-0 I hinted at yesterday and so it proved as United went down 1-0 in a very tight match. The 0-0 back to lay trade would have paid off well.
galatasary won with an 87th minute winner, and bayern Munich won 0-4 as you would rightly expect of a 1.17 shot.
Today sees the lower tiers of English Football as well as Champions League play-offs. These play-offs I think are 2 legged affairs and I feel, in 2 legged affairs, the betting angles reveal themselves far better in the 2nd leg when we know what teams MUST do, as opposed to what they would like to do in the first leg.
The ideal in the first leg is for the home team to keep a clean sheet and thus avoid the curse of the away goal, and for the away side to at least score to clinch that away goal.
7pm – Spartak Moscow v Fenerbahce – 1.96 home favourites.
No draw in 11 in all competitions for Spartak Moscow, and they only lost twice.
Only 1 defeat in last 8 at home.
5 defeats and 3 wins in last 8 CL matches, and were not in the CL in 2011.
Comprehensively beaten by the likes of Chelsea and Marseille betray Spartak’s level , indeed they failed to score at home to these 2.
Only 2 wins in the last 7 for Fenerbahce and in Dirk Kuyt they have a Premiership quality player with 4 goals in his last 3 games. He could reasonably be a threat this evening.
Fenerbahce have made sporadic appearances in the Champions League in 2008 and 2010 where they failed to win. Their only recent win was away to vaslui. Some interesting signings in Kuyt for$1 million – bargain – as well as Krasic and Yobo for Everton.
Tough to call this match. Dirk Kuyt is in superb attacking form and will be the threat for Fenerbahce , but the Champions League group stages have seen them comprehensively beaten whenever they have arrived at it – they failed to make the group stages in 2009 and 2011.
745pm – FC Basel v CFR Cluj – 1.68 home – rightly favourites at home given their exploits in last year’s CL.
Unbeaten in last 10 in all competitions, Basel have scored 2-3-1-3-2 in last 5 home matches, although we cannot reasonably weigh up the opponents compared to today’s
Basel beat Man Utd and Bayern last season , before being comprehensively beaten by Bayern 7-0 in the 2nd leg.Only one defeat in last 7 at home in the CL for Basel saw them beat Man Utd and Bayern. They have also beaten Cluj in 2010 1-0.
Basel should be difficult to beat this evening.
No defeat in 8 in all competitions for Cluj.Only 1 win in last 11 for Cluj in the Champions League in 2008 and 2010. They have so far beaten Slovan Liberic twice in 2012.
WLLLLLW away in the CL. The win v Liberic laterly was care of a 90th minute goal so hardly convincing. Cluj have scored against Chelsea, Roma, and Bayern away, some 4 years ago.
Instinctually the form is with Basel in this competition. But I am not confident about Basel keeping a coveted clean sheet if Cluj have retained a semblance of the ability they had in this competition against the 3 named clubs away from home.
NOTE – high temperatures apparently predicted for this game, could have a real influence on proceedings. Factor this in.
Copenhagen v Lille and Helsingsborgs v Celtic see both teams’ odds as almost identical. Celtic have scored 2 goals in each of their last 3 CL matches against Braga, and HJK. Helsingsborgs have scored 3 in their last 3.
Celtic are poor in the SPL, a struggling 1-0 home win and a 92nd minute 1-1 equaliser so far. They may have trouble scoring 2 tonight in a tough match to predict. With these matches, the 2nd leg should open up the betting angles.
Borussia Mgladbach make their debut into the CL today so it is tough to decipher how they’ll perform. No defeat in 10 in all competitions and 3 consecutive clean sheets ( 6/10) . Only 1 defeat at home in their last 30 for Mgladbach must count for something this evening?
Struggles for Kiev against Feyenoord ( 90th minute away winner and coming from 1-0 down to win 2-1 in first leg). The German league I suspect is stronger than the Dutch.
2.26 favs this evening, Mgladbach might be tough to beat if they retain recent home form on their debut in the CL. As with horse racing though, backing or trusting debutants is difficult to do!
I notice Wolves are 1.68 at home today. They has not scored in their last 3 home PL matches. Break the duck today? A 1-0 away loss to Leeds could hint at a solid enough defence undone just the once.
Barnsley managed a 1-0 home win v Boro.Their away form is generally poor.
Not much to go on, and Wolves first home match in the new Championship. New manager syndrome too in Solbakken. Wolves will not want to lose. This could be a 0-0 or 1-0 for a long period?
I don’t normally deal with the Championship and lower leagues, but will do I think, come November when there is plenty of form in the book and teams start showing patterns and sequences home and away.