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Europa League: Athletic Bilbao - Inter Baku


Big gulf in class between these two and Inter who were only founded in 2004, have made this stage of the competition for the first time in seven attempts. They will likely be a little ahead in terms of match sharpness, given that they have already played four competitive matches in the Europa League, but that is balanced by a shorter off season and like Athletic, they have yet to begin their domestic campaign. Athletic have a history of success in this competition and Spanish clubs always treat it with respect, which is something we have discussed many times previously and seven of the last twelve winners have come from La Liga, a Champions League spot came along with Sevilla's success last season and Bilbao will know that this competition provides their "easiest" route into the premier international club competition.

Hosts are little changed from last season when they finished 7th in La Liga, following a strong finish to their campaign which saw them collect 36 points ( 1.89 pg) over the second half of the season and also make the Copa del Rey final. That form over a full season (72 points) equates very close to top 4 (Champions League level) , infact, Atletic were 4th in 13/14 with just 70 points and they will certainly enter this campaign full of optimism. They have named their strongest available squad today and it is one full of quality and only really missing Mikel Rico and hugely gifted Iker Munian, but they learned to win without the talented left winger who missed much of the end of last season and should be able to secure a big enough lead in the firts leg to make the return little more than a training game.

Although their Spainish season doesn't start for another three weeks, they are well ahead in terms of preparation as they have a two legged Super Cup match up with Barcelona up first and want to be at full speed for those games.


Athletic Bilbao -2 goals 1.84 asian line/Sportmarket.

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New York City FC - Montreal Impact

Ahead of a recent home game with Toronto FC I wrote the following about NYCFC........

"This was meant to be the debut for Frank Lampard, but a minor knock has delayed that for another 7 days +, however, the official signing of Andrea Pirlo was announced this week and the prospect of both being available soon is a major boost both for the club and MLS football in general and neither are the type to ever give less that 100%. The starting eleven today will be fighting hard to keep their places and tickets will already have been sold with the crowd expecting to see the former EPL star and this will still be a bit of an occasion.

These two teams met three weeks ago in Ontario with NYC winning 2-0 , they were tactically very solid there, pressed incredibly well and David Villa who remains a top class striker took his two chances and to be honest, at 3-4 years younger than the other two "superstars" , he should still be playing at a higher level, he could score in MLS almost in his sleep ! Anyway, I liked that performance, defensively they allowed TFC little and dominated the match early and through the key middle part of the second half and on the road. The defence has also been tightened up with the signings of a pair of Spanish full backs in the incredibly experienced Andoni Iraloa and Angelino this week ."

They drew that 4-4 (!) and the defence is still very much a work in progress judged by that and their next home game a 5-3 defeat of Orlando City last weekend, but goals at the other end of the pitch are clearly not an issue and we saw a huge impact from Andrea Pirlo who, in just over 30 minutes of action set up any number of chances and oozed class. With another week under his belt in training and now Frank Lampard alongside him, there is going to be huge interest in this game and I do not think that any team in the MLS can handle Villa, Lamps and Pirlo at the same time, especially not an Impact side conceding at the rate of two goals per away start, even if it is only for 45-60 minutes !

New York City FC -0.5 ball 2.07 asian line/Sportmarket.

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Scotland: Dundee United-Aberdeen 02/08


Last season on opening day we saw these two play in the reverse fixture, Aberdeen went into that game drained, having been eliminated from the Europa League just a couple of days previously and they lost 3-0. It did not stop them ultimately having their best season in yeras and they were the closest challengers to champions Celtic all season long and only three points adrift as late as mid March. Today we have a little bit of history repeating as the Dons again played a Europa League match on Thursday, this time having made the longest trip in European football history (and back) to play Kairat Almaty in Kazakhstan , where they lost 2-1 in very tough conditions. That was an 11,000km round trip which effectively lasted four days in terms of travel and acclimatisation, across five time zones (and back !), having already been to Macedonia and Croatia in the last month, they must be at least a little jaded and it will be hard to get "up" for today's bread and butter action.

They are focused on extending their European adventure and expended a lot of energy to get that away goal on Thursday after falling behind to two early goals and are sure to have one eye on the return leg this week. United will have been fully focused on this for weeks and will be looking for the highly energetic, upbeat performance they put in on this day last year, they also won both home games against Aberdeen and backing them with a handicap start today looks the way to go, as I am certain that the visitors would see a point as one earned rather than two lost. The hosts started last season very strongly, and were 6-1-1 and top of the SPL after eight matches and are looking for something similar this time round, they have had a "poor" pre season results wise, but have been playing top level opposition and pushed EPL side Watford very close last weekend in their final warm up game. Anyway, far from ideal prep for Aberdeen and I have to oppose them.


Dundee United +0.25 ball 2.11 asian line/Sportmarket

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Champions League Shakhtar Donetsk- Fenerbahce


These two "big" clubs were very disappointed to be paired together at this stage of the competition and the qualifying stages will be weaker for losing one of these before the playoff round, the first leg ended 0-0 ,so usually advantage Shakhtar, but tonight's match will be played in Lviv which is over 1,200 km from Donetsk and that certainly lessens their "home field" edge today, as does the lack of that all important away goal. They have been playing here for some time and will continue to do so for at least the rest of 2015 due to the conflict in the Ukraine, but their two home games this season have only been attended by a little over 2,000 supporters and whilst there will be many more this evening, it is likely that many thousands will be Fenerbahce supporters, with Istanbul being a similar distance from Lviv as Donetsk ! If this is to be an intimidating atmoshere, it is likely to be one caused by the visiting fans and the Turkish club have been repeating pleas to their supporters to "behave" all week.

Obviously, Donetsk have been operating under incredibly difficult circumstances and it was no surprise that Douglas Costa , Luiz Adriano and Fernando moved on and replacements have been very low key, with largely, only the "needy and the greedy" prepared to make the move at present. Fenerbahce brought in a host of players to strengthen their defence, including Souza and Simon Kjaer and greatly increased offensive options with the additions of Fernandao, Nani and amid much hoopla, Robin Van Persie. They have all travelled tonight, RVP made his debut from off the bench with 20 minutes to go in the first leg and had a chance to win it late, but fluffed his lines, he was said to be well short of fitness ahead of that match, but with another week under his belt he should be further along and he has it seems, asked the coach to name him in the starting eleven.The visitors can add new right back Şener Özbayraklıto the squad for the first time following his suspension.

This is a massive game for Fenerbahce, as it is for all clubs involved, but the Turkish giants have missed out on Champions League football for two years and the group stage for seven, they have invested heavily this season to correct that (goodness knows what their wage bill must be !) and have assembled the strongest squad in their history and for now, it all comes down to this. The players are on a reported bonus of 7.5m € to progress this evening and I guess that will not do any harm either.

They will be looking for that away goal that might well be enough to secure progression and have the firepower to get it and look solid enough at the back to stop the "home" side from scoring twice.


Fenerbahce +0.5 ball 2.12 asian line/Sportmarket.

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England League 1: Gillingham - Sheffield United


Hosts are my big priced League 1 selection and we get an early look at their credentials today as they entertain the bookmakers favourites. Having said that, we will have 45 matches left to play after today so nothing is going to be decided either way at Priestfield, but it would be nice to start on the front foot. Gills beat United here 2-0 just six months ago courtesy of two late goals and have seriously upgraded since in my opinion, both in terms of personnel and how the club are now run under Justin Edinburgh ( see both below). I don't really have an issue with United as favourites to win League 1, they are a massive club at this level and will draw huge crowds if even moderately successful. However, odds of 5.50 do not reflect their real chance of winning the division in my opinon and they have not exactly thrilled me with their off season activity in the transfer market. They also have a new manager in Nigel Adkins and I can tell you one thing about him, he will have had the players working incredibly hard in pre season, probably harder than they have ever done previously, some will thrive on that, others will not, the ones that do will certainly benefit from it at some stage through the season, but they might well be a little "leggy" to begin with. However, pre season results have been decent so maybe they will hit the ground running, but they are very short of options in the middle of the backline and Adkins is desperate to bring at least one central defender in as soon as possible, it is a big squad now at Bramall Lane , but they are currently missing eight senior players with an average of over 25 apperances each last season, including two key figures in Brayford and Done and five who started the final play off match of last season. United arrive in confident mood, but given their injury list and that the Gills beat them here recently when United had far more to play for and that the home side have done more in terms of bringing in players since, I have to suggest a strong bet on the home side plus the handicap start.

Gillingham +0.25 ball 2.12 asian line/Sportmarket.

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England Cup Cardiff City - AFC Wimbledon


Dons had a very disappointing opening day home loss to Playmouth Argyle, they lost 2-0 and the visitors very quickly suuseed out the 3-4-3 formation of Wimbledon that manager Neal Ardley claims to be committed to. Even pre match Ardley said that his players "haven't properly grasped the formation yet" and heads dropped quite quickly once they fell behind and if the players do not believe, it will not work. Several of them are being asked to play unfamiliar roles and ones they were clearly unsuited to, with wingbacks lacking the pace or stamina and this very quick turnaround, playing away to a team who were in the top flight in 2014 looks a big ask and with several players in the away squad the wrong side of 30, three are in their 34th + year, the saying of old dogs and new tricks springs to mind. 3-4-3 "never" works in L2, Newport County and Bury tried it last season and quickly dumped it and I suspect that Dons will do likewise, but the coach appears adament he will stick with it in the league for now and it would seem even more foolhardy to play it on Saturday, ditch it tonight and go back to it again this weekend, but to go with it this evening against a stronger team who will have had Dons watched at the weekend, could be suicidal.

City opened with a 1-1 home draw with Fulham on saturday, they felt they deserved more and will certainly want the win tonight and get the supporters on their side ( weekend attendance was the lowest since City moved out of Ninian Park) after a very disappointing first season back in the Championship, failure to win again will be a mini disaster for them and they could do with a confidence boost ahead of back to back road games with QPR and Blackburn Rovers. The more realistic home supporters felt that this was one of the better performances in the last two seasons and one which offers real cause for optimism, fitness levels were heavily criticised last season and have clearly been addressed by boss Russel Slad over the last eight months or so, starting at the end of the last camapign and they looked so much physically stronger at the weekend and they can make this count this evening, in a match where City really need a win.


Cardiff City -1.25 goals 2.28 asian line/Sportmarket.

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France Ligue2 Niort vs Sochaux

These two met in the cup in midweek with Sochaux winning 3-2 on home soil, that was the second meeting in Montbeliard in the last three months with Niort being the victor, also by the odd goal in five, at the end of last season. Niort have yet to post a win this season and have conceded seven goals in their last three starts, which is not really a surprise, as their defence was broken up in the summer with centre back Yoann Barbet making the "dream" move to Brentford and left back Quentin Bernard . the less attractive trip to Dijon ! Bernard missed just five starts in three seasons (no wins), Barbet missed six league and cup starts last season and again, Niort did not win any, you can add the three games this season to that list and the backline is clearly in a transitional stage. Offensively, they look better and it was noteworthy that Seydou Kone, who scored 15 goals last season ( most of any player in a team who finished outside the top ten), was retained and got off the mark in midweek and he will fancy his chances of scoring against Sochaux for the third match running.

After posting just a single point from two league starts, I expect the visitors, who are amongst the promotion favourites, to look to build on that cup result and get their Ligue 2 camapign back on track and surely we will see both teams looking for all three points and each has named an offensive looking squad, we should see a continuation of the open nature of those two recent meetings. I think the goal line should at least be a quarter goal greater and will suggest ..........

over 2 goals 2.04 asian line/Sportmarket.

Niort : Delecroix, Allagbé - Da Veiga, Choplin, Sans, Lahaye, Malcuit - Roye, Koukou, Batisse, Omrani, Sambia - Rocheteau, Koné, Dona Ndoh, Djigla.


Sochaux : Werner, Camara - Vivian, Faussurier, Gibaud, Onguéné, Mignot, Collaço – Ramaré, Rayos, Tardieu, François – Caceres, Toko Ekambi, Sao, Thuram.

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Premier League Southampton- Everton


Saints have served us well through pre and early season, including both scoring and conceding twice at Newcastle United last weekend, notes from that game are reproduced in full under the "good luck" signoff . Everton also started with a 2-2 draw at home to Watford and both teams showed good battling qualities to come from behind. Southampton came on very strong over the last 15 minutes and could even have turned the match on it's head after United dominated much of the first 75, but it would have been an injustice had the Magpies lost. Saints would have been very pleased with the away goal from Graziano Pelle, just his second road goal amongst the 13 in the EPL he has scored, two home goals followed the last away goal, which was also early last season and he looks sure to be a big threat today. Roberto Martinez has openly admitted that he feels he needs three new players to be competitive this season and that was before he knew he was going to be without left back Leighton Baines for several months, which seems likely to mean 19 yo Brendan Galloway, who made his debut for the Toffees last week, keeping his place, which will doubtless get the attention of home right winger Dusan Tadic. Easy to see goals in this for Saints, but my concerns about them defensively against EPL quality opposition ( see last week's post) remain and I feel the best value is ..............

over 2.5 goals 2.17 asian line/Sportmarket.

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England League 2 : Hartlepool United- Newport County


Not sure why Terry Butcher was appointed as County boss, his record in England as a head coach is terrible and in charge of League 2 clubs, he had a frightful six months or so at Brentford in 2007, he has a 18.52 % win rate and no experience of English football, let alone this division in the interim eight years, including three out of the game ! He has yet to break his duck at County, the three games he has taken charge of this season have all gone "over" conceding two or more in each and I expect this to follow suit. He has a very young and inexperienced squad, five of the 14 who played in the 2-2 draw with Stevenage at the weekend were aged 17-18 and the fact that one of only two substitutions was made in the 94th minute there, highlights the lack of options, especially experienced ones, at his disposal.

Home boss Ronnie Moore has a much better lower league record and knows the game well, he took charge of Pools in December with the club bottom of League 2 and heading out of the Football League, having averaged only 0.6 pts per game, Moore upped that to 1.27 pts and oversaw the great escape. His team are a perfect 3 from 3 this season and will fancy their chances of adding to that , with the scheduler having kindly organised a nice 900 km round trip and approx ten hours on a team bus for County on a Tuesday night ! Both league meetings last season ended 2-2 and it is hard to make a case for the visitors not to concede at least twice again. United remain without Trevor Carson in goal and central defender Harry Worley, who left the pitch inside the opening ten minutes on Saturday, is a major doubt and the hosts are already lacking alternatives in the middle of the backline. That is enough to make we opt for the "over" 2-1/2-2 or something similar .

over 2.5 goals 2.14 asian line/ Sportmarket.

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England Championship: Bristol City- Leeds

Last round Leeds took the lead quite late, but conceded an equaliser even later and that has set the tempo for all their games under Rosler so far, also drawing at Reading on Sunday and in a Yorkshire derby at Doncaster Rovers in the Capital One Cup last midweek, where they had to play much of the game with ten men. The match against the Royals was a turgid affair with very few chances and it had a 0-0 look from about the 10th minute onwards, Rosler has his teams well organised and prepared, but is far too negative at times, especially on the road, when drawing or holding a narrow lead, for my liking. However, his team's are very hard to break down and getting a handicap start against newly promoted City, who are pointless so far and under quite a bit of pressure to get at least a point tonight, looks the way to go. I saw the Robins on Saturday, in their 4-2 home defeat to Brentford, City were 2-1 up and had missed good chances to extend that lead, before the match turned on the sending off of Luke Freeman. From that moment on (35th minute), it was all Bees and the away win never looked in doubt. Brentford are very confident with their passing game and the wide open spaces of Ashton Gate (which looks bigger as there are only three sides to the stadium at present) played to their strengths, which meant that for much of the next hour + , City had to work incredibly hard and at times where chasing shadows and the quick turnaround when many players are still coming to terms with life at the higher level, is a big ask on the back of that.

They will be without Freeman tonight, he played in central midfield, right at the heart of what was a 3-5-2 and the catalyst of so much of what they did offensively, he was on Saturday (after his departure) and will be today, a very big loss, Freeman was ever present last season, contributing seven goals and 18 assists and for many, was the stand out performer in League 1. City know they are a couple of players short of being competitive in the Championship and made what looked like a bit of a panic bid yesterday of £9m for Andre Gray of the Bees, they have a wealthy owner, but in terms of FFP, this is a signing they cannot really afford (as I type it has still not been completed). Anyway, we will discuss Gray in the future, for now, suffice to say that City are still coming to grips with life at this level, need to strengthen and are without perhaps their best player today. United have won the last six h2h meetings with City ,have scored eight (two or more in each) in their last three visits to Bristol and look good for at least a point and I don't feel that the hosts would be too disappointed with that. We are at a very early stage of the season, but almost 52% of games in the Championship have ended all square, many teams look evenly matched and there is a lot of jostling for position, especially in the transfer market and for now, games in general might continue to be hard to win. Things will probably return to "normal" after the transfer window has closed.


Leeds United +0.25 ball 2.05 asian line/Sportmarket.

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France Ligue2 21/08 Le Havre - Clermont Foot

Clermont have featured heavily in my notes this season and that is kind of a theme for today, anyway, my preview of their home game with Nimes last week went a lot like this ......

"Clermont are coming off back to back league draws to start their season and a 3-1 road win at Valenciennes in midweek when I wrote .....

These two are unbeaten across two Ligue 2 games, I would perhaps expect the visitors to be perhaps more interested in the cup, with Valenciennes looking for a return to the top flight they left in 2014 and Clermont are very tough to beat at present, carrying over there fine form from the end of last season.....Clermont enjoyed a very strong finish and collected 20 points ( 2.0 per game) over their final ten matches and hauled themselves up into mid table safety after looking in trouble, finally finishing as close to Nancy in 5th as they were to the drop zone.

However, the visitors are without central defender Baptiste Martin, midfielder Farid Boulaya and their two holding players in Cedric Goncalves and veteran Eugene Ekobo and the defensive spine looks vulnerable this evening. Hosts are without winger Sigamary Diarra and are resting Sekou Baradji their senior defensive midfielder , with Lucas Tousart injured in that position and I assume, the trip to Metz on Friday in mind. I expect both teams to play with a little less intensity and again that we will see goals.

Valenciennes pushed the self destruct button in that game, being reduced to nine men inside 30 minutes, but it kept the run going for Clermont and they would not have expended too much energy there over the final hour when the match turned basically into a training session. The mood in their camp will be bouyant and in stark contrast to that on the Nimes team bus, ahead of the new season I discussed their problems.....

Over the final 10 starts (of last season), Nimes were far and away the poorest performer with just 5 points, but there were reasons for that, in that they were told they would not be promoted having forced themselves into top 3 contention and they were likely to be relegated, due to "match fixing" charges, this has now been reduced to an eight point penalty with which they will start the season, but even that is subject to appeal.

They still have the 8 point deduction and it has been proving a heavy load to carry, with Nimes continuing their poor form from last season and being scoreless through three league and cup starts, including friendlies,they are without a win in 15 starts, have failed to score in eight of those and that included a 1-0 home defeat to Clermont four months ago, tonight's opponent did the double over Nimes last season, also winning this fixture 3-0, with the match over as a contest early, 2-0 at the break and Clermont should have had at least two before they scored the first, it was an incredibly dominant showing over the opening 30-35 minutes, one of the most emphatic I saw in Ligue 2 last season and I lost count of the number of times that Clermont carved Nimes open."

They won that 1-0 which continues their very solid start to the campaign and this is a team who have been playing really well since mid March.

Le Havre, along with Nancy were the best performers over the second half of last season and already have two wins to their name this time round, however, they are coming off a 3-0 loss at Paris FC last week and that was on the back of a 2-1 home midweek cup defeat to a third tier team and suddenly, the defensive alarm bells are ringing. They might have Fabien Farnolle in goal tonight , which might help, but he has not played a Ligue 2 start in over 15 months (and only one competitive game in the interim) when he was with.......Clermont ! Bringing in a new keeper is always tricky, that will go doubly so with starting right back Issam Chebake out , they have won just twice in 12 when he plays 25 minutes or less, conceding 1.25 goals per game (otherwise 0.89pg). I am tempted by Clermont at circa 2.51 with the draw no bet option and have mulled this over for a looooooooong time, but ultimately decided that I prefer .............

Le Havre : Farnolle, Milosavljevic - Puel, Touré, Mombris, Cambon, Fortes, Mendy - Bonnet, Fontaine, Lekhal, Gamboa, Louiserre - Le Bihan, Mendes, Mousset.

Clermont : Jeannin, Caillard - Avinel, Bockhorni, Djellabi, Rivieyran, Salze - Agounon, Boulaya, Diogo, Ekobo, Espinosa, Genest, Jobello - Diedhiou, Dugimont.


over 2 goals 1.96 asian line/Sportmarket.

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Premier League Leicester City- Tottenham Hotspur


I spoke the lack of pure striking options for Tottenham Hotspur ahead of their Audi Cup game with Real Madrid earlier this month ......"Spurs starting their EPL campiagn on Saturday LUNCHTIME, there is no way they can give of their best in both matches and probably not in either. They have arrived with only one out and out striker in Harry Kane and to say that any injury to him would be a disaster is a major understatement. They did add to their defensive options in the summer, but look threadbare, Kane aside, in the striking department and simply have to bring someone in asap , but at present, every potential move is being thwarted.

All teams have brought big squads with them, but Tottenham are short of experience, especially in key offensive areas and will be looking to blood some youngsters, rotate heavily, with 12.45 Saturday in mind and also, as much as possible, protect Kane."

They still have not been able to fully address this problem, although the signing of Clinton Njie will help , whilst Kane is available they will always have goals in them, but they just cannot see the window close without adding another top level striker. They scored twice against Stoke City ( see above) without Kane getting on the scoresheet, but he was pivotal in everything they did offensively and his all round play is improving on almost a game by game basis and his link up play and ability to find space for himself and team mates last weekend was eyecatching. But it is goals that strikers are all about and he will want to kick start his season asap and especially so today, as he spent three months on loan at City at the end of the 2012-13 season when still a teenager. He was up for the league meetings last season and scored four goals in two starts against City, he sat out the cup meeting between the two teams, but all three games went "over", with an average of 4.33 goals and both teams on the scoresheet in each.

Despite the change in head coach at the Foxes, they still look to have goals in them at both ends of the pitch, scoring six and conceding three in taking six points from their two opening games, Claudio Ranieri's start could hardly have gone much better and City also managed to break that London "jinx" last week, with that win at West ham United , ahead of which I wrote .....

"City were also delighted with their opening day result, a 4-2 defeat of a fairly woeful Sunderland team, who did not show up until after the break , but the Foxes have to overcome a dire record in the capital, losing all six EPL matches here last season and going 0-3-17 in London since their last win, they are 1-0-7 at Upton Park and something weird happens to them once they get inside the M25. New boss Claudio Ranieri is not called the tinkerman for nothing and seems undecided about whether to stick with 4-4-2 or go with 3-5-2 this afternoon, feeling he needs an extra body in midfield and he is on the look out for at least one midfielder before the transfer window closes. He will need some extra help to deal with new United signing Dimitri Payet who has continued where he left off last season at Marseille and he now has 13 assists in his last 13 starts and will be the man to watch this afternoon."

Payet got a goal, but could not save his side from defeat and the Hammers simply did not do enough with the huge amount of possession they enjoyed, City cannot continue to give up that much of the ball and their natural instinct is to drop very deep when defending and good teams are going to punish them. I favour goals with both teams scoring and am going to go with the bigger handicap.

over 3 goals 2.38 asian line/Sportmarket.

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La Liga: Athletic Bilbao- Barcelona


Super Cup meeting here just nine days casts a very long shadow over this match, Athletic won that 4-0 a result which would have left the European champions not only stirred, but shaken, they took the lead in the second leg three days later, but once Bilbao had equalised it was game over and Barce were left to lick their wounds in the Camp Nou in front of a crowd of 90,000 , with only the visiting fans celebrating and if you don't think that will have hurt as must as the humbling in Bilbao, then you do not understand the Barce mentality, it could only have been worse if Real had been the opposition !

There has been talk of a crisis at the Catalan giants after the transfer embargo, loss of Xavi and Pedro and the eight goals conceded in basically three halves of football versus Sevilla and Athletic, but nobody was saying that when they were 4-1 up with about an hour gone in the former and you do not write off the best team in Europe after one "friendly" ( which is basically what it is) defeat . They will be without Gerard Pique tonight who is suspended after losing it big time in the return leg with Bilbao, but that highlights how painful the experience was and Neymar is still recovering from his illness.

On the plus side they will have Claudio Bravo back in goal, it was Marc-André Ter Stegen who conceded the eight and Jordi Alba will also return to further strengthen the backline. Boss Luis Enrique feels this game will be very different.....

“Despite the fact that we have played against them twice already, the context of the game will help us more than the previous two. "We'll be fresher with more good training sessions under our belt while, on the other hand, Athletic are coming off a demanding and important game.”

He was talking about the Europa League game which Athletic played on Thursday, they actually rested half their squad for the trip to Slovakia and were coasting at 2-0 with just a quarter of the game to play, but Zilina scored three late goals to win the tie and now Athletic will have to take the return this coming week far more seriously than they would have liked and they do treat the Europa League with great respect. They are without a couple of key players themselves in Munian, Iturraspe and San Jose, but the real issue today is that they are going to face a Barcelona team who have had their pride dented and one desperate for revenge and looking to start their domestic league campaign with a win. Barce scored ten goals in three starts against Bilbao last season, including five here in San Mames, with Messi having a goal and three assists and, with the hosts short in the holding department tonight, he could again have a big night. Barce are a big hungry dog who have been prodded with a sharp stick twice already this month, you do not get away with that too often and regardless of line up, it feels like payback time.


Barcelona -1 goal 2.04 asian line/Sportmarket.

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Champions League Maccabi Tel Aviv- FC Basel


I am very keen on the away win here, Maccabi Tel Aviv forced a 2-2 draw in the first leg, courtesy of a brace from star player Eran Zahavi, who now has six goals in the competition this season, despite creating just five attempts on goal in Basel. That puts them in the driving seat in that a win, or any low scoring draw would see them progress, but there is still a lot of pressure now on the hosts, they have already lost at home to Viktoria Plzen (1-2) in the previous round and also conceded twice here in their domestic opener at the weekend. They did rest a lot of players for that, but still started Zahavi which seemed odd, but he is just so key to everything they do offensively, however, he is surely going to come in for very special attention from the visitors this evening. FC Basel are Champions League veterans, having made that stage in four of the last five seasons, including progressing from a group containing Liverpool and Real Madrid last year. They have got used to the money the competition brings and might even have losely budgeted for it this season, there will definitely be good bonuses on the line. This is far from a trip into the unknown for the Swiss giants, as they knocked Maccabi out of both the Champions and Europa League in 2013-14, which must be some kind of record and so, it will be their third recent visit here, they have yet to lose to the Israeli side in five meetings and in truth, on later reflection, would probably have taken as much confidence out of their domination of the first leg than disappointment at conceding that late equaliser. 85 UEFA ranking places between these two, which is probably flattering to the home side if anything, but an indication of their respective ability and no real "surprise" factor for Maccabi to cling to. Away win.


FC Basel -0.5 ball 2.16 asian line/Sportmarket.

from Sports Betting Advice Service Clubgowi

[paul8209]

France Ligue2 Dijon- Creteil


These two played out a 90 minute 3-3 draw here in Dijon in the cup just 17 days ago, with the hosts progressing on penalties. That was not really against the grain when these two clubs meet and the previous two league meeting here had gone "over"and Dijon have scored five in two visits to Creteil. The hosts have scored two goals in each of two home starts since, so are clearly finding goals fairly easy to come by and they will be pleased with back to back clean sheets in those too, but the last two times they kept teams out for 180 minutes, they played Creteil at home next and we alreday know what happened in those and we can see a hat-trick completed today. The vistors have conceded in all five competitive matches this season, two or more in two of the last three and whilst their only win was a 2-1 home defeat of Bourg en Bresse Peronnas ( where they really rode their luck and could have easily lost), they have managed to score in every start and I expect both teams on the scoresheet today. Really adventurous looking home squad and Julio Tavares, a player we discuss regularly, will be looking to score against Creteil for the third match running. This could get fiesty, there has been a red card in the last three meetings and SEVEN penalties in the last four, at least one in each. Betfair Sportsbook offer 4.20 for a spot kick to be awarded tonight, which looks reasonable if that is your thing.

Dijon : Basilio, Reynet - Bamba, Bernard, Jullien, Varrault - Amalfitano, Benet, Gastien, Marié, Ngoyi, Sammaritano - Bela, Diony, Rivière, Tavares, Thiam.


Créteil : Kerboriou, Merville - Augusto, Di Bartolomeo, Fofana, Hérelle, Ilunga, Konongo, Montaroup - Dabo, Dias, Lafon, Lesage, Loriot, Mollet - Andriatsima Clémence.


over 2.5 goals 2.19 asian line/Sportmarket.

from Sports Betting Advice Service Clubgowi