Steve Claridge and James Eastham take you through the Champions League fixtures that look like they provide great value to sports bettors...
Every week former pro footballer Steve Claridge and sports betting expert James Eastham take punters through the weekend’s roster of Premier League matches. They analyse each game, telling football bettors how they think each one will be played, what the likely score line will be and who the most probable goals corers will be.
They have already built up a tremendous following so http://www.betrepublic.com/
This is the first week of Champions League group stage action so Claridge and Eastham have been hard at work in the Bet Republic’s TV (BRTV) studio to bring you the first show of the 2009/10 season.
If you like to bet on football, then you would be crazy to miss the Champions League Preview Show which is now streaming on the Bet Republic TV.
These are the games the duo has decided make the most appeal from a betting angle this week:
TUESDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2009
Besiktas v Man Utd
Besiktas are based in Istanbul and are current Turkish champions
Their squad includes several Turkey internationals, such as veteran goalkeeper Rustu Recber, as well as Italy centre-half Matteo Ferrari
Recommended Bets:
Man Utd -1 Asian handicap (9/8)
Under 2.25 goals (99/100)
Chelsea v FC Porto
Chelsea met Porto in the last 16 in 2006-07, winning 2-1 at home and drawing 1-1 away
Chelsea is unbeaten at home in the group stages in the last five seasons – 11 wins and four draws.
Nine of those 11 victories have been to nil
FC Porto sold three of their best players for a combined fee of 57m euro over the summer – last season’s six-goal Champions League top scorer Lisandro Lopez (24m euro to Lyon), left-back Aly Cissokho (15m euro to Lyon) and playmaker Lucho Gonzalez (18m euro to Marseille).
Recommended Bets:
Chelsea to win to nil (evens expected)
Chelsea-Chelsea HT/FT (5/6)
FC Zurich v Real Madrid
FC Zurich are current Swiss champions but have never made the knock-out stages of the Champions League
Real Madrid’s away games at this stage of the competition tend to be high-scoring – 15 of 21 over the past seven seasons have had over 2.5 goals
Recommended Bets:
Both teams to score (8/11)
Over 3 goals (91/100)
Marseille v AC Milan
This is a repeat of the 1993 Champions League final where Marseille beat Milan 1-0 – France’s only triumph in the competition
Marseille finished second in the French League last season and went out of this competition in the knock-out stages, finishing third behind Liverpool and Atletico Madrid in their group
New Marseille manager Didier Deschamps was Marseille captain when they lifted the trophy in 1993. He spent more than 40m euro on new players this summer
Milan is back in the competition after missing out on the Champions League last season
Recommended Bets:
0-0(7/1) and 1-1 (11/2) correct scorelines (split stakes)
Under 2 goals (113/100)
WEDNESDAY, 16 SEPTEMBER 2009
Inter v Barcelona
Jose Mourinho faces the club where he was assistant manager to Bobby Robson in the 1990s
Barcelona’s away games at this stage of the competition are not as free-scoring as you might think – all three group games had over 2.5 goals last season but only three out of 12 group away games had over 2.5 goals before that Inter were poor at home in the group stages last year – they lost 1-0 to Panthinaikos, drew 1-1 v Werder Bremen and beat Anorthosis Famagusta 1-0
Recommended Bets:
Barcelona (16/11)
Under 2.5 goals (19/20)
Liverpool v Debrecen
Debrecen have been champions of Hungary in four of the last five years, finishing second on the other occasion
They have no Champions League pedigree, however, crashing out to Elfsborg of Sweden (1-0 on aggregate) and Rabotnicki of Macedonia (5-2 on aggregate) in the qualifiers over the last two seasons. In 2005-06, Manchester United beat them 3-0 home and away in the Champions League qualifiers
Recommended Bets:
Liverpool -2.5 Asian handicap (68/67)
Dirk Kuyt to score anytime (11/10 expected)
And they go through a handful more games with their top tips.
