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Champions League Bettingby Ben, last updated 2005-11-20 22:56:10An interesting round in the Champions League this week. Some teams have already qualified for the next round so maybe the motivation isn't there to push for a win. My bets for this round are Arsenal to beat FC Thun at 2.2 at totesport. Manchester United/ Chelsea double at 2.27 at bet365. Reasoning below. Early prices for Champions League (20th Nov 2005) Tuesday November 22nd, 2005 19:45 Ajax (1.5) Draw (4.3) Sparta Prague (7.5) 19:45 Barcelona (1.53) Draw (4) Werder Bremen (8) 19:45 Bayern Munich (1.2) Draw (7) Rapid Vienna (15) 19:45 FC Thun (3.75) Draw (3.75) Arsenal (2.2) 19:45 Juventus (1.2) Draw (6.3) Club Brugge (13) 19:45 Lille (2.2) Draw (3.25) Benfica (3.75) 19:45 Man Utd (1.67) Draw (3.75) Villarreal (6.5) 19:45 Panathinaikos (2.35) Draw (3.4) Udinese (3.2) Wednesday November 23rd, 2005 19:45 Anderlecht (9) Draw (4.5) Chelsea (1.44) 19:45 FC Porto (1.57) Draw (3.6) Rangers (6.5) 19:45 Fenerbahce (4) Draw (3.25) AC Milan (1.91) 19:45 Inter Milan (1.22) Draw (5.8) Artmedia Bratislava (13) 19:45 Liverpool (1.83) Draw (3.4) Real Betis (5) 19:45 Real Madrid (1.83) Draw (3.4) Lyon (4.5) 19:45 Rosenborg (2.4) Draw (3.25) Olympiakos (3.15) 19:45 Schalke (2) Draw (3.25) PSV (4) I did have a look at some of the other strong favourites. Bayern, Inter Milan and Juventus have qualified. Weak opponents but the odds are so low they are not worth bothing with. I can see one of them not winning thier game. Ajax haven't been performing consistently enough. Ditto for Porto. Barcelona have already qualified and Werder Bremen will be no pushovers for them. Lyon look good for an outsider bet. Real Madrid were dreadful against Barcelona. The only thing that puts me off this one is that the need to win for Lyon is not there. Real won't win by more than 3 goals so they'll end up top of the group even if they don't try. *Update. I saw 3.00 for Lyon draw no bet at vcbet and taken that too. I can't see Real winning this on current form. Lyon are unbeaten in all competitions this season. Worst case is my money back for the draw. Man Utd v Villarreal, Anderlecht v ChelseaChelsea/ Man U Double.Chelsea's away form in the Champions League is really bad. I can't off the top of my head remember the last match they won away. Against Betis, they were terrible. So why I am backing them this time? They need to win this for qualification to the knock out stages to be in their own hands. The 'need to win' arguement is used far too often. Teams, usually need to win because they are rubbish so can't perform when they 'need to win'. I don't think Chelsea has this problem though for obvious reasons. Anderlecht are 0-0-4 so far, scoring exactly zero goals in the process. They have nothing to play for. A place in the UEFA Cup is probably beyond them now. This is my strongest pick of the round.Man U also need to win against Villarreal also. A loss could see them out of the Champions League. Last time out they lost to Lille but that was when they were going though a bad patch. The win against Chelsea and then Charlton would have done their confidence no end of good. Villarreals away form is pretty good in Europe - unbeaten in nine matches in Europe away from home. Most of these I expect were in the UEFA Cup though. Villarreal have key players out for this match, Diego Forlan, Juan Roman Riquelme and their captain Quique Alvarez. If United can beat Chelsea at Old Trafford then they should be able to see off a weaken Villarreal. I wouldn't touch such low odds seperately but when put in to a double, the odds are quite reasonable. You can get 2.27 at bet365. FC Thun vs ArsenalFC Thun (3.75) Draw (3.75) Arsenal (2.2)Arsenal have already qualified so maybe this is one to skip for the cautious bettor. Arsenal have been fantastic in the Champions League so far, having won all 4 of their games. They've been lucky with the way the groups been drawn I suppose but still, winning is winning. Their Premiership form is on the rise. They managed to end Wigan's winning streak at the weekend. With Henry back they look like the Arsenal of 2 years ago.Thun is a bit of an unknown to me. I backed them a few weeks ago to beat Sparta Prague. This was really a bet against Sparta than a bet for Thun though. (They won the match 1-0 with a late goal). Looking at the Swiss League, Thun don't look like they are doing very well. They have only won 1 of their last 6 and lost the other 5. Looking at the news on uefa.com I read their captain is out for this fixture. Surely this is a major blow for them. Its away from home and Arsneal have already qualified but the price is just too tempting to pass up. I'll be watching out for the Arsenal team news. If Wenger decides to rest key players then maybe it won't be the golden bet that it is now but at this moment in time totesport's offer of 2.2 is great value. ← Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 Next → |
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