There are six English sides in action this week, with Everton and Spurs in the Europa League, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City in Champions League competition and, probably the biggest game of the European footballing week, Liverpool – in the same competition – hosting European champions Real Madrid at Anfield. Tasty!
As usual we’ve got three accumulators and with one at short odds, one at long odds and one in the middle we’ve got a football acca to suit all tastes.
Easy Winner – 21/20 (Bet365)
- Chelsea to beat Maribor (1/7) – Chelsea are a class – or two – above Maribor and even if they opt to rest Diego Costa and other players they will have far too much quality on home soil to do anything but win this one.
- Barcelona to beat Ajax (1/9) – Ajax are no mugs but Barcelona are hitting their stride somewhat and, as with Chelsea above, Lionel Messi and co are quite simply a class apart from their opposition so another simple home win is the way to go here.
- Arsenal to beat Anderlecht (8/13) – Having opened our acca this week with two bankers, Arsenal is a nice way to up the odds. Whilst the Gunners have a number of key injuries and haven’t quite hit top gear yet, they have so much experience of this type of game that we think they offer excellent value against an average Anderlecht outfit.
Medium Risk – 19/2 (BetVictor)
- Man City to beat CSKA Moscow (4/7) – City have often struggled in Europe and a trip to Russia is never easy but City look good to take the three points here, even at short odds.
- Roma and Bayern Munich to draw (13/5) – Bayern have struggled on the road at times this term and with Roma in fine fettle and full of confidence we think Miralem Pjanic and co can get a draw in what should be a very interesting match.
- Real Madrid to beat Liverpool (17/20) – Real Madrid have class in abundance and whilst they lost 4-0 on their last visit to Anfield, in this competition in 2009, their goal threat should see them past a Liverpool side that remains weak at the back, especially with Dejan Lovren injured.
Long Shot – 209/1 (BetVictor)
- Atletico Madrid v Malmo draw (6/1) – Malmo have really impressed us this season with some fine results in Europe as they stroll towards another Swedish title. They lost 2-0 at Juventus but we feel they could nick a draw here and they come into this one full of confidence.
- Liverpool v Real Madrid over 4.5 goals (4/1) – We’ll keep this short and sweet – Liverpool’s poor defence plus Real’s sublime attack equals goals… and plenty of them!
- Everton/Everton half time/full time (5/1) – An outsider, as one would expect in a 209/1 acca, but we think Everton will get the job done in France. They have taken four points from two tough European games and with Ross Barkley in contention we think they will put one foot in the next round with a solid win in Lille.