Champions League and UEFA Cup Matches-Wednesday /Thursday
The qualifying rounds of both the Champion’s League and UEFA cup start this week with a host of teams starting out on their journey for European glory. While most of the teams are minnow you’ve probably never heard of before, there are one or two familiar names making an appearance including Manchester City from the Premiership.
We’ve chosen a selection of games to look at in both competitions where we hope punters can get a return for their money.
Champions League
Drogheda United from the Eirecom League of Ireland Premier Division are at home to Levadia of Estonia and must have a great chance of establishing a lead for the return leg in Tallin next week. The standard of football in the Eirecom League is improving all the time and we think Drogheda 4/6 (Partybets) will prove to be too powerful for Levadia.
Our choice of bet in this match is the 2-0 win to Drogheda at 6/1 (Ladbrokes).
Irish Premier League side Linfield have a touch draw against Dinamo Zagreb. Linfield have produced some sterling performances in Europe over the years, but it’s hard to envisage them taking anything from this game. Dinamo have recruited a few new players using some of the £15 fee they received from the sale of Modric to Tottenham Hotspur and the 2/5 (Skybet) for them to beat Linfield tonight looks to be a safe bet.
Linfield are 15/2 (Bet365) and the draw is 3/1 (VCbet), but it’s a comfortable Dinamo Zagreb victory as far as we’re concerned. The correct score of 3-0 to Dinamo at 21/2 (Betfair) looks of interest as does the half time/ full time bet of Dinamo /Dinamo at 11/10 (Skybet).
UEFA Cup
Manchester City travel to the Faroe Islands for their first match in this year’s competition and they are long odds on favourites to win the match at 1/11(Betfair). The only people who may be interested in taking Streymur at 16/1 (Partybets) to beat City are probably Manchester United fans. Manchester City probably won’t be anywhere near full fitness yet, while Streymur are in the middle of their season and will have advantage fitness wise, but City will still win this although they may not run away with it.
The 2-0 and 3-0 correct scores for City are the two bets we think could be worth backing at 5/1 and 9/2 respectively (Paddypower).
Bangor City from Wales are at home to Midtyjlland of Denmark and they will have a tough task against one of the stronger teams in the competition at this stage.
Bangor are 6/1 (Partybets) to win tonight but we reckon they could be in for a long 90 minutes against the Danish side. Mittjylland 4/9 (Bet365) have made some quality signings already this season and they should outclass the Welsh side.
In some of the other ties being played tonight we think FC Copenhagen will be far too good for Cliftonville and at only 2/5 (Paddypower) look one of the best bets of the night.
APOEL Nicosia look likely winners in Macedonia against Pelister and at 7/10 (Partybets) they’re worth including in any multiple bets.
A couple of teams at bigger prices we think might have a chance are Vetra of Lithuania who meet Viking of Norway. We think they’re decent value at 7/2 (Coral) and could beat the more fancied Viking.
Vllaznia of Albania could cause a bit of an upset against Lithuanian side Koper and we think the 13/2 being offered by Skybet is pretty generous and is one to get on.