Copa Libertadores Group Stage
FreeThe groups have finally been decided for the Copa Libertadores! I’ve listed them below for you to peruse:
Group 1
LDU Quito (Ecuador, Copa Libertadores holders)
Colo Colo (Chile)
Sport Recife (Brazil)
Palmeiras (Brazil)
Group 2
Boca Juniors (Argentina)
Guarani (Paraguay)
Deportivo Tachira (Venezuela)
Deportivo Cuenca (Ecuador)
Group 3
River Plate (Argentina)
Nacional de Montevideo (Uruguay)
Universidad de San Martin (Peru)
Nacional Ascuncion (Paraguay)
Group 4
Sao Paulo (Brazil)
Defensor Sporting (Uruguay)
America de Cali (Colombia)
Independiente Medellin (Colombia)
Group 5
Cruzeiro (Brazil)
Universitario de Sucre (Bolivia)
Deportivo Quito (Ecuador)
Estudiantes de la Plata (Argentina)
Group 6
Lanus (Argentina)
Everton (Chile)
Caracas (Venezuela)
Guadalajara (Mexico)
Group 7
Gremio (Brazil)
Aurora (Bolivia)
Boyaca Chico (Colombia)
Universidad de Chile (Chile)
Group 8
San Lorenzo de Almagro (Argentina)
Libertad (Paraguay)
Universitario Lima (Peru)
San Luis (Mexico)
As you can plainly see, the Copa Libertadores does not adhere to European format in the respect that the Copa Libertadores allows clubs from the same country to be paired in the same group.
The groups that stand out as nightmare groups are Group 1 and Group 4. There’s too many good sides in each group with a lot of difficult away trips.
The more unpredictable groups appear to be Group 5, Group 6 and Group 7. There are a lot of sides in these groups with similar levels of ability.
The more predictable groups are Group 2, Group 3 and Group 8. I fully expect the Argentinian team from each of these three groups to finish top of their respective groups.
Saturday’s Picks
My tips:
As usual, there’s a lot of teams today that take my fancy! However, as you also may have noticed, England is suffering some adverse weather conditions of late thus postponing some matches. I’ve done my best to keep on top of these and remove them from the list but some I may not be able to delete from my list in time to so sorry in advance! See the list below for further details:
Hamburg, Asteras Tripolis, Olympiakos Piraeus
Everton, Wigan Athletic, Reading
Swansea City, Peterborough United, Rimini
Scunthorpe United, Tranmere Rovers, Shrewsbury Town
Livorno, Internazionale, Leicester City
Liverpool, Xerez, Stade Rennais
Toulouse, Genk, Vitoria Guimaraes
LOSC Lille, Manchester City, Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Schalke 04, Nottingham Forest, Rochdale
Vaduz, Levante, Saint-Etienne
AS Nancy-Lorraine, Lanus, Estudiantes de la Plata
Ethnikos Achnas, Racing Montevideo, Universidad Catolica
My favourites from this list? Well, I like a riskier treble containing Nottingham Forest, Schalke 04 and Manchester City. For a more dependable bet, I’d perhaps chance a 4-team accumulator containing Olympiakos Piraeus, Livorno, Toulouse and Ethnikos Achnas.
For the rest of the picks, see below!
Argentinian Primera Division:
Argentinos Juniors vs Arsenal de Sarandi (5)
Newell’s Old Boys vs Gimnasia de la Plata (6)
Godoy Cruz de Mendoza vs Banfield (5)
Estudiantes de la Plata vs Rosario Central (7)
Lanus vs Racing Club (8)
Belgian Eerste Klasse:
Anderlecht vs Mons (8)
Dender vs Club Brugge (8)
Genk vs Zulte Waregem (7)
Gent vs Mouscron (6)
Roeselare vs Germinal Beerschot (6)
Tubize vs Mechelen (4)
Brazilian Campeonato Carioca:
Madureira vs Americano Campos (7)
Macae vs Flamengo (7)
Cabofriense vs Tigres Brasil (6)
Brazilian Campeonato Paulista:
Corinthians vs Portuguesa (7)
Santo Andre vs Marilia (3)
Bragantino vs Paulista (8)
Mirassol vs Ituano (5)
Chilean Primera Division:
Palestino vs O’Higgins (7)
Universidad Catolica vs Cobresal (8)
Universidad de Concepcion vs Everton (4)
Audax Italiano vs Santiago Morning (5)
Colombian Futbol Profesional:
Atletico Huila vs Boyaca Chico (5)
Atletico Junior vs Millonarios (7)
Cypriot Division A:
Ethnikos Achnas vs A.E.Paphos (8)
Doxa vs Omonia Nicosia (8)
APOEL Nicosia vs Alki (9)
Ecuadorian Primera Division:
Deportivo Cuenca vs Macara (6)
Tecnico Universitario vs Espoli (4)
English Premier League:
Manchester City vs Middlesbrough (6) 1-0
Blackburn Rovers vs Aston Villa (6) 1-2, Agbonlahor to score at any time
Chelsea vs Hull City (7) +1.25 handicap for Hull
Everton vs Bolton Wanderers (7) 2-0, T.Cahill to score first goal
Sunderland vs Stoke City (6) 1-1, Beattie to score for Stoke
West Bromwich Albion vs Newcastle United (6) 2-1
Wigan Athletic vs Fulham (7) 3-1, Zaki to score first goal
Portsmouth vs Liverpool (7) 0-2
English Championship:
Sheffield United vs Sheffield Wednesday (7)
Birmingham City vs Burnley (3)
Blackpool vs Doncaster Rovers (4)
Coventry City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers (3)
Norwich City vs Bristol City (5)
Nottingham Forest vs Queens Park Rangers (5)
Plymouth Argyle vs Derby County (6)
Reading vs Preston North End (7)
Swansea City vs Ipswich Town (7)
English League One:
Hartlepool United vs Walsall (6)
Scunthorpe United vs Cheltenham Town (9)
Swindon Town vs Southend United (6)
Tranmere Rovers vs Leyton Orient (7)
Leicester City vs Oldham Athletic (8)
English League Two:
Bournemouth vs Shrewsbury Town (7)
Brentford vs Chester City (6)
Bury vs Dagenham & Redbridge (7)
Darlington vs Wycombe Wanderers (4)
Gillingham vs Bradford City (4)
Grimsby Town vs Exeter City (5)
Macclesfield Town vs Notts County (5)
Port Vale vs Aldershot (5)
Rochdale vs Morecambe (7)
Finnish Liiga Cup:
Tampere United vs Inter Turku (5)
HJK Helsinki vs Jaro (8)
French Ligue 1:
Le Havre vs Stade Rennais (7) 0-1
Lorient vs AS Monaco (6) 1-0
AS Nancy-Lorraine vs Auxerre (7) 2-0
FC Nantes vs Paris Saint-Germain (6) 2-2
Saint-Etienne vs Stade Malherbe de Caen (5) 2-1
Toulouse vs Le Mans (8) 2-0
LOSC Lille vs Sochaux-Montbeliard (5) 0-0
French Ligue 2:
Troyes vs Vannes OC (5)
German Bundesliga:
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Koln (7) 2-1
Karlsruher vs Hamburg (8) 0-2
Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs VFB Stuttgart (7) 3-1, red card in this game
Moenchengladbach vs Hoffenheim (6) 1-2
Schalke 04 vs Werder Bremen (7) 1-0, +1.25 handicap for Werder Bremen
VFL Wolfsburg vs VFL Bochum (4) 1-1
Greek Super League:
Asteras Tripolis vs Panserraikos (6)
Panthrakikos vs Olympiakos Piraeus (8)
Aris Salonica vs Panionios (6)
International Friendly:
Lithuania vs Poland (4)
Israeli Ligat Ha’al:
Bnei Yehuda vs Maccabi Netanya (5)
Hapoel Ironi Shmona vs Maccabi Tel-Aviv (5)
Ashdod vs Maccabi Petach-Tikva (4)
Hapoel Petach-Tikva vs Bnei Sakhnin (6)
Maccabi Haifa vs Hakoah Maccabi Amidar (10)
Italian Serie A:
Lecce vs Internazionale (7) 0-2, Ibrahimovic first goal
AC Milan vs Reggina (9) -1.25 handicap, Kaka to score first goal
Italian Serie B:
Albinoleffe vs Empoli (6)
Brescia vs Bari (5)
Frosinone vs Salernitana (6)
Grosseto vs Sassuolo (5)
Livorno vs Piacenza (8)
Modena vs Pisa (6)
Rimini vs Treviso (7)
Triestina vs Ascoli (5)
Vicenza vs Mantova (6)
Dutch Eredivisie:
Roda JC vs Sparta Rotterdam (5)
AZ Alkmaar vs Willem II (8)
Heerenveen vs NAC Breda (7)
Heracles vs NEC Nijmegen (6)
Northern Irish Premier League:
Ballymena vs Glenavon (6)
Cliftonville vs Dungannon Swifts (8)
Coleraine vs Bangor (7)
Linfield vs Crusaders (7)
Lisburn Distillery vs Institute (5)
Newry City vs Glentoran (7)
Portuguese Liga:
Estrela da Amadora vs Vitoria Setubal (4) 1-0
Vitoria Guimaraes vs Maritimo (7) 3-1
Spanish Primera Liga:
Real Madrid vs Racing Club de Santander (8) 3-1, -1.25 handicap, at least 4 goals in the game
Sevilla vs Real Betis (7) 2-1, at least 1 red card in this game
Spanish Segunda Liga:
Alicante vs Xerez (9)
Levante vs Real Murcia (7)
Real Sociedad vs Real Zaragoza (6)
Rayo Vallecano vs Hercules (5)
Swiss Super League:
Vaduz vs Aarau (5)
Young Boys Bern vs Basel (6)
Turkish Super Lig:
Hacettepe vs Eskisehirspor (6) 1-1
Sivasspor vs Kocaelispor (9) -1.25 handicap
Galatasaray vs Kayserispor (8) 2-0
Uruguayan Primera Division:
Central Espanol vs Club Nacional de Montevideo (6) 1-2
Danubio vs Penarol (6) 1-0
Defensor Sporting vs Juventud (9) -1.25 handicap
Racing Montevideo vs Wanderers (8)
Venezuelan Primera Division:
Estrella Roja vs Zamora Barinas (6)
Welsh Premier League:
Airbus vs Haverfordwest (6)
Prestatyn Town vs Newtown (5)
Rhyl vs Neath (10) -1.25 handicap
TNS vs Llanelli (6) at least 3 goals in this game
Enjoy your free betting tips!