Strength Of Leagues

20/02/2009

Today’s post is about the strength of European leagues. There’s a permanent shift on leagues but have you ever thought who should be in what position? I mean, ok, we can all agree the top 3 leagues are the English Premier League, Spanish Primera Liga and Italian Serie A, most likely in that order too – but what next? For instance, did you know that the English Championship is more popular than the French Ligue 1? But does that make it better? Not in my eyes, but it’s more food for thought.

Anyway, I decided to compose a list purely because I’m odd like that. See whether you agree or not, make up your own list and mail it, whatever you like! Note: I’m not including first/second/third divisions because this would simply drag on forever.

Note: I refuse to include the San Marinese and Andorran leagues because they’re just shit, shit to a level I can’t even fathom and whereby there’s no difference between the leagues!

Saturday’s Picks

My tips:

The sides I like the look of backing today are listed below:

Stoke City, Zulte Waregem, Cercle Brugge
Sheffield United, Preston North End, Reading
Darlington, Oldham Athletic, Swansea City
Inter Turku, RoPS, Bury
Toulouse, Olympique Lyonnais, Paris Saint-Germain
Empoli, Bari, Internazionale
Fehervar, Xanthi, PAOK
Vojvodina, Hearts, AZ Alkmaar
Rayo Vallecano, Celta Vigo, Nafta Lendava
Rhyl, Carmarthen, Newtown

My most recommended treble from this bunch would be Rayo Vallecano, AZ Alkmaar and Internazionale. Closely following that would be Olympique Lyonnais, Paris Saint-Germain and Darlington.

However, my tip of the day has to be a bet containing Rochdale, Livorno and Aberdeen. I’ve seen odds on this of 12/1 so that tells you how tight the games in question are. However, give it a whirl, you know where to come if you win and wish to share your winnings! Also, another risky but worthwhile treble is Palermo, Vasas Budapest and Stoke City.

For the rest of the picks, see below!

Albanian Kategoria Pare:

Vllaznia vs Lushnja (9)
Partizani vs Besa (5)
Tirana vs Elbasan (8)

Austrian Bundesliga:

SCR Altach vs LASK Linz (4) 1-1
Austria Vienna vs Sturm Graz (5) 3-2
SV Kapfenberg vs Austria Karnten (5) 1-2

Belgian Eerste Klasse:

Cercle Brugge vs Lokeren (6) 2-1
Dender vs Mechelen (5) 1-1
AA Gent vs Germinal Beerschot (7) 3-1
Kortrijk vs Charleroi (4) 0-0
Roeselare vs Mons (5) 0-1
Tubize vs Zulte Waregem (7) 0-2

Cypriot Division A:

APEP vs Alki (5)
APOEL Nicosia vs Atromitos Yeroskipou (10) -1.75 handicap
Ethnikos Achnas vs APOP (6)
A.E.Paphos vs AEK Larnaca (7)
Doxa vs E.N.Paralimni (4)
Anorthosis Famagusta vs Apollon Limassol (8)

English Premier League:

Aston Villa vs Chelsea (6) 1-1, Carew first goal
Arsenal vs Sunderland (7) 1-0, Van Persie to score, red card in this game
Bolton Wanderers vs West Ham United (5) 1-2, penalty in this game
Middlesbrough vs Wigan Athletic (6) 0-0
Stoke City vs Portsmouth (7) 1-0, Beattie to score
Manchester United vs Blackburn Rovers (9) 2-0, Rooney to score at any time

English Championship:

Nottingham Forest vs Derby County (4)
Barnsley vs Charlton Athletic (6)
Blackpool vs Watford (5)
Coventry City vs Birmingham City (6)
Norwich City vs Burnley (7)
Plymouth Argyle vs Sheffield United (8)
Reading vs Bristol City (7)
Sheffield Wednesday vs Crystal Palace (5)
Southampton vs Preston North End (7)
Swansea City vs Doncaster Rovers (8)
Queens Park Rangers vs Ipswich Town (7)

English League One:

Bristol Rovers vs Leicester City (6)
Carlisle United vs Stockport County (6)
Colchester United vs Southend United (5)
Crewe Alexandra vs Huddersfield Town (4)
Hartlepool United vs Leyton Orient (6)
Hereford United vs Peterborough United (5)
Leeds United vs Cheltenham Town (7)
Millwall vs Brighton (7)
Northampton Town vs Walsall (5)
Swindon Town vs Scunthorpe United (6)
Tranmere Rovers vs Milton Keynes Dons (6)
Yeovil Town vs Oldham Athletic (8)

English League Two:

Accrington Stanley vs Dagenham & Redbridge (6)
Aldershot vs Morecambe (7)
Barnet vs Bradford City (7)
Bury vs Notts County (8)
Chester City vs Exeter City (5)
Darlington vs Grimsby Town (9)
Gillingham vs Macclesfield Town (7)
Luton Town vs Shrewsbury (4)
Rochdale vs Brentford (5)

Finnish Liiga Cup:

RoPS vs JJK (7) 2-1
Haka vs HJK Helsinki (6) 1-2
Inter Turku vs TPS Turku (8) 3-1
Tampere United vs FC Lahti (6) 2-2

French Ligue 1:

Grenoble Foot 38 vs Paris Saint-Germain (8) 0-2
Le Havre vs Auxerre (6) 0-1
Lorient vs Sochaux-Montbeliard (5) 0-0
AS Nancy-Lorraine vs Olympique Lyonnais (7) 1-3, Benzema to score at any time
FC Nantes vs Stade Malherbe de Caen (6) 1-0
Toulouse vs Valenciennes (8) 3-1
OGC Nice vs Stade Rennais (7) 1-2

German Bundesliga:

Bayern Munich vs Koln (8) 3-0
Arminia Bielefeld vs VFL Bochum (6) 1-0
Energie Cottbus vs Werder Bremen (5) 1-1
Karlsruher vs Eintracht Frankfurt (4) 1-0
Moenchengladbach vs Hannover 96 (6) 1-2
VFB Stuttgart vs Hoffenheim (5) 2-1
VFL Wolfsburg vs Hertha BSC Berlin (5) 2-2

Greek Super League:

Xanthi vs OFI Crete (7) 2-1
Panathinaikos vs Panionios (8) 2-0
PAOK vs Iraklis (7) 1-0

Hungarian Soproni Liga:

Vasas Budapest vs Budapest Honved (6)
Gyor vs Haladas (4)
Paksi vs Kecskemet (5)
Diosgyor vs REAC Budapest (7)
Fehervar vs Siofok (8)
MTK Budapest vs Kaposvar (6)

Israeli Ligat Ha’al:

Maccabi Tel-Aviv vs Hapoel Petach-Tikva (6)
Maccabi Petach-Tikva vs Hapoel Tel-Aviv (5)
Bnei Sakhnin vs Ashdod (5)
Hakoah Maccabi Amidar vs Hapoel Ironi Kiryat Shmona (7)
Beitar Jerusalem vs Bnei Yehuda (7)

Italian Serie A:

Bologna vs Internazionale (8) 1-3, Ibrahimovic first goal
AS Roma vs Siena (8) 2-0, penalty in this game
Palermo vs Juventus (5) 2-1, Amauri to score at any time

Italian Serie B:

US Avellino vs Vicenza (7)
Bari vs Ascoli (9)
Empoli vs Cittadella (8)
Grosseto vs Livorno (6)
Mantova vs Triestina (6)
Piacenza vs Albinoleffe (5)
Sassuolo vs Rimini (7)
Treviso vs Modena (6)

Dutch Eredivisie:

ADO Den Haag vs NAC Breda (7) 1-2
Heracles vs AZ Alkmaar (8) 0-3
Groningen vs PSV Eindhoven (7) 1-2

Northern Irish Premier League:

Bangor vs Linfield (8)
Crusaders vs Ballymena (9)
Dungannon Swifts vs Newry (5)
Glenavon vs Lisburn Distillery (7)
Glentoran vs Coleraine (7)
Institute vs Cliftonville (5)

Portuguese Liga:

Rio Ave vs Vitoria Setubal (7) 1-1
Sporting Clube de Lisbon vs SL Benfica (5) 2-1, Benfica to score first

Scottish Premier League:

Aberdeen vs Dundee United (6) 3-2
Falkirk vs Hamilton Academicals (5) 0-0
Hearts vs St Mirren (8) 2-0
Inverness Caledonian Thistle vs Hibernians (5) 1-1
Rangers vs Kilmarnock (8) 2-0

Serbian Superliga:

Banat vs Borac (5)
Hajduk Kula vs Habitfarm Javor (6)
Jagodina vs Cukaricki (5)
Napredak vs Vojvodina (8)
OFK Belgrade vs Rad Belgrade (7)
Partizan Belgrade vs Red Star Belgrade (5) 1-2 red cards in this game

Slovenian Prva Liga:

Interblock Ljubljana vs Koper (8)
Nafta Lendava vs Primorje (8)
Maribor vs Drava (9)

Spanish Primera Liga:

Barcelona vs Espanyol (8) 3-1, Messi first goal, red card in this game
Real Madrid vs Real Betis (8) 2-0, Huntelaar to score at any time, penalty in this game
Villarreal vs Sporting Gijon (7) 1-0, Rossi to score
Sevilla vs Atletico Madrid (6) 1-1, Kanoute & Forlan to score, red card in this game

Spanish Segunda Liga:

Albacete vs Castellon (4)
Celta Vigo vs Eibar (7)
Elche vs Real Zaragoza (7)
Huesca vs Tenerife (7)
Las Palmas vs Real Murcia (6)
Rayo Vallecano vs Sevilla Atletico (9)
Real Sociedad vs Hercules (5)

Swiss Super League:

Vaduz vs Bellinzona (6) 1-0
Young Boys Bern vs Aarau (6) 1-0

Turkish Super Lig:

Buyuksehir vs Ankaragucu (6) 1-1
Kayserispor vs Bursaspor (6) 2-1
Konyaspor vs Antalyaspor (5) 1-0
Trabzonspor vs Denizlispor (8) 2-0
Genclerbirligi vs Fenerbahce (7) 1-2

Welsh Premier League:

Airbus vs Aberystwyth (6)
Caersws vs Carmarthen (7)
Connah’s Quay Nomads vs Rhyl (7)
Newtown vs Caernarfon (8)
Port Talbot vs Bangor (4)
Prestatyn Town vs Llanelli (8)
The New Saints vs Haverfordwest (8)
Welshpool vs Neath (6)

Enjoy your free betting tips!