Champions League and UEFA Cup Best Bets
Champions League matches take place tonight and UEFA Cup second leg ties take place tomorrow.
Champions League
It’s the turn of Liverpool and Chelsea to fly the flag for England tonight and we can see differing fortunes for the two sides.
Liverpool have to make the trip to Madrid to face Real and if this match was taking place a couple of months ago, then we’d have been putting a hefty bet on Liverpool as Real were in poor form. Since Juande Ramos has been in charge Real have seen their fortunes change dramatically and they have won 10 of the 11 matches since he took over as manager.
We think Liverpool’s chances in this game depend on whether Steven Gerrard is declared fit to play or not. If Gerrard isn’t fit, then Real at 11/10 (Betfair) look a reasonable price to win, if he does play then we’d be thinking about taking the draw at 9/4 (Bodog).
Our prediction is a win for Real Madrid and we’re taking a 2-1 correct score 8/1 (Skybet).
Chelsea are 5/6 (Coral) to beat Juventus tonight and at that price they are worth backing. New Blues boss Hiddink will set out his team to get the lead they need to take to Italy and we can see Chelsea winning by a couple of goals.
We’re taking Chelsea to win 2-0 6/1 (Bet365) with Frank Lampard out pick to be first goalscorer at 13/2 (Paddypower).
Sporting Lisbon have never progressed beyond the group stages of the competition before and they face experienced campaigners Bayern Munich in their tie. Sporting are 7/4 (Ladbrokes) to win, but we fancy the chances of Bayern to get an away win.
Bayern are 13/8 (bet365) and even although their domestic form isn’t good -three defeats in four games-with their previous European record combined with Sporting’s failure to beat a German side in Europe after 14 attempts we’re siding with the German’s to get a narrow win.
Our prediction is a 2-1 win for Bayern 7/1 (VCBet) with Miroslav Klose to be first goalscorer at 6/1 (Coral).
In the other Champions league game tonight we’re going with Panathinaikos 11/2 (Skybet) to get a win away in Spain against Villareal. Villareal haven’t been in the best of form recently and Panathinaikos did win a tough group, including an away win against Inter Milan, so they are a dangerous team.
Panathinaikos look to be worth a small bet at an attractive price and we’ predicting a 2-1 win at 22/1 (Coral).
UEFA Cup
CSKA Moscow have to be firm favourites to beat Villa tonight after their display in Birmingham last week. They looked a bit unlucky not to win the match last week and we think the 4/7 (Bodog) should be snapped up.
Our prediction is a 3-0 win for CSKA at odds of 16/1 (Ladbrokes).
Spurs lost 2-0 to Shakhtar in the first leg and we’re taking the Ukranian side to do the double and beat Spurs again tonight. Shakhtar are 6/4 (VCBet) and look decent value. We’re predicting a 2-1 correct score for Shakhtar at 9/1 (Bet365).
Manchester City played very well to get a 2-2 draw in Copenhagen last week and look favourites to qualify. But nothing is ever easy when City are involved and we think this game may well end in another draw tonight.
We’re picking a draw 3/1 (Bodog) with a correct score of 1-1 15/2 (Skybet).
In other UEFA ties we’re selecting home wins for Hamburg 2/5 (Coral), St Ettienne 11/10 (Ladbrokes) and Udinese 4/7 (VCBet).