Porto vs Atletico Madrid
FreeToday’s featured game sees Liga Sagres reigning champions Porto entertain Primera Liga strugglers Atletico Madrid. The hosts have made a somewhat commanding start to their domestic campaign with four wins from six games, scoring an average of two goals per game. They lost their opening UEFA Champions League game 1-0 away to Chelsea and thus will be looking to get their European campaign started at their difficult Estadio do Dragao. Additionally, they enter this game on the back of a morale-boosting victory over rivals Sporting Clube de Lisboa at weekend. Happily for Porto, they’re hosting an Atletico Madrid side that are still winless in their domestic campaign this season with three draws and two defeats from their opening five games. They also managed to draw at home to Cyprus’ APOEL Nicosia in their opening UEFA Champions League game. There’s an awful lot going on behind the scenes at Atletico Madrid with individuals not getting on, problems with backroom staff and the board issuing a statement of confidence in the ability of manager Abel Resino (which is usually the kiss of death!). Aside from that, iconic striker Sergio Aguero is injured and thus unable to lead his side’s flambuoyant game. Lastly, Atletico Madrid’s main problem lately has been horrendous defending in just about all of their games so far. As they’re travelling to a very potent Porto that have a lot of goals in them, you have to feel that a home win at 10/11 has got some good value in it!
Wednesday’s Picks
My tips:
As ever, below are my recommended value tips for today in no particular order:
Porto vs Atletico Madrid – home win at 10/11 – see introduction for full details.
AC Milan vs FC Zurich – FC Zurich + 2.75 goal handicap at 6/5. Naturally, this is indeed a risky call but I think it’s potentially got an awful lot of value. People are talking of finding a “surprise” team – well, look no further than Switzerland’s FC Zurich. Don’t get me wrong, they’re far from world-beaters. However, one of their main strengths is that they score an awful lot of goals and will work hard in any circumstance. This is the kind of team AC Milan simply hate to play against, as indeed do most Italian sides due to their somewhat slow footballing style. FC Zurich lost their opening UEFA Champions League game 5-2 to Real Madrid but they could and probably should have scored more goals. FC Zurich’s most redeeming feature for me is their lack of fear – it allows them to attack sides and cause problems. As they’re facing an AC Milan side that are frankly in the twilight of their prestigious history, they know that closing down the hosts and working hard could earn them a surprise result here. AC Milan may have won at Olympique de Marseille in their opening game but they were beyond fortunate in a game that they were frankly overrun in. Domestically, AC Milan have mustered just three goals in six games, an average of one every other game, which is really poor for such a big club. I’m seeing a real contrast in styles here and I genuinely think that AC Milan are really going to struggle here. For me, gifting an FC Zurich side (that has the ability to score in Milan) a +2.75 handicap start at 6/5 could have bags of value in it, particularly as AC Milan haven’t scored more than two goals in any game (including friendlies) since 26th April 2009, where they beat Palermo 3-0 in Serie A. As ever, of course, I’ll leave the final decision up to yourselves!
As ever, any questions/explanations required, feel free to email me at thefootytipster@gmail.com. For the complete picks listing, see below!
UEFA Champions League:
CSKA Moscow vs Besiktas JK (8) 2-0
Bayern Munich vs Juventus (6) 1-1
Girondins de Bordeaux vs Maccabi Haifa (9) -1.75 handicap
Manchester United vs VFL Wolfsburg (9) over 2.5 goals
AC Milan vs FC Zurich (7) 1-0
Real Madrid vs Olympique de Marseille (8) over 3.5 goals
APOEL Nicosia vs Chelsea (7) 0-2
Porto vs Atletico Madrid (8) 2-1
Asian Champions League:
Pohang Steelers vs Bunyodkur (5) 1-1
Nagoya Grampus vs Kawasaki Frontale (6) 1-1
FC Seoul vs Umm Salal (6) 1-0
Al Ittihad vs Pakhtakor Tashkent (7) 2-0
English Championship:
Nottingham Forest vs Scunthorpe United (7)
Newcastle United vs Queens Park Rangers (8) over 2.5 goals
English League Two:
Chesterfield vs Grimsby Town (6)
Latvian Virsliga:
Blazma Rezekne vs Tranzits Ventspils (7) 2-0
Olimps Riga vs FK Jurmala (6) 0-1
Lithuanian A Lyga:
Ekranas Panevezys vs Vetra Vilnius (6) 2-1
Dutch Eredivisie:
NEC Nijmegen vs FC Utrecht (7) 1-1
Russian Division 1:
FK Chita vs Anzhi Makhachkala (4)
Energiya Khabarovsk vs NoSta Novotroitsk (6)
Luch-Energiya Vladivostok vs Vityaz Podolsk (8)
Sibir Novosibirsk vs Cherno Novorosisk (9)
FK Nizhnyi Novgorod vs Alaniya Vladikavkaz (6)
Ural Sverdlovskaya Oblast vs FK Krasnodor (7)
Metallurg Lipetsk vs Baltika Kaliningrad (5)
Salyut Belgorod vs Shinnik Yaroslavl’ (6)
Singaporean S-League:
Gombak United vs Armed Forces (6) 2-2
Enjoy your free betting tips and feel free to visit our forum!