UEFA Cup - March 12th

Champions League was really good for us, having 4 winners and 1 loss and a profit of 5 Units in these 2 days and taking the overall record to 11W-7L-3P and a profit of 7.1 units.

A few games on UEFA Cup today and some interesting views...let's get to work!


Hamburg -½ @ 1.80 (-125) [2 UNITS]

Hamburg receives the tough Turkish side of Galatasaray. The Turkish go to Nordbank Arena after a a thrilling 4-3 home win against Bordeaux, and Hamburg is walking firm and steady in the UEFA competition, losing only 1 game in group stages, against Ajax in Amsterdam Arena. Galatasaray will miss the Czech international Milan Baros, their top scorer this season in UEFA, and also Mehmet Topal, Servet Cetin, and Emre Gungot. Hamburg's only injury is Guy Demel, who is still questionable. Hamburg will prevail in this game thanks to their home field advantage and the key players Galatasaray is missing. Will be a close game, but the home side will celebrate after 90 minutes.

Werder Bremen - St. Etienne OVER 2½ @ 1.74 (-135) [2 UNITS]

Two attack-minded teams get on the field today and this game has written "lots of goals" all over it. Both teams only think about winning games and scoring games and this will be an offensive showdown. St/ Etienne is great in counter attack and Werder conceeds many goals, but surely they can score plenty too.

Werder Bremen has had a really dissapointing Bundesliga season and their hopes in the UEFA cup are high, cause is their only chance to play Champions League next season. They'll attack since minute 1 and will leave spaces on defense that St Etienne in players like Gomis and Ilan will take advantage of it, as they are a really good couple.

2 Attack-minded teams + shaky defenses = Over 2½ = $$


Zenit St Petersburg +½ @ 1.63 (-160) [2 UNITS]

The defending UEFA and Super Cup champions travel to Italy to face Udinese in a thrilling match where the visitors are planning to continue their successful run in this competition.

Aside from Arshavin's departure, Zenit keep the same team. They even got the high paid Portuguese prospect Dany, and a boost in midfield with Semshov and Hungarian Huszti. Udinese is slowly coming back lately, as they totally lost the pace at some point this year, remaining winningless for 11 games. They defeated Juve and got a point from Roma last weekend.

Udinese don't seem as a reliable team right now, Zenit eliminated Stuttgart on the previous round despite being in the domestic offseason. Zenit will prevail in this game as their experience in these kind of matches it's really important.


Manchester City -1 @ 1.87 (-115) [2 UNITS]

Manchester City has been an inconsistent team all season long, but has shown better football in UEFA cup, especially at home. They already got rid of 2 other Danish teams (Midtjylland and FC Copenhagen) in this competition and at home they have won 3 out of 4 games, PSG was the only team that could get a draw from them.

Aalborg played UCL in the same group with Man U, Villarreal and Celtic, and actually they managed to edge Celtic out for the spot in UEFA Cup. Aalborg totally outplayed Deportivo in the previous round giving them a 6-1 combined score.

Definately Man City is the team called to perform, to win and advance. Their class is in no discussion against Aalborg. With not much to play for in the Premier League, Man City will concentrate in this competition and will be comfortable taking a 2 goal lead to their trip to Denmark.

UCL - March 11th

Nice work yesterday on Bayern, was too easy to be true! 8W-6L-3P for a 4.1 profit.

Today there are some plays that deserve a bet.

Manchester United -½ @ 1.65 (-155) [2 UNITS]

The "Red Devils" are the best team in the competition, no doubt. After watching the 1st legs where all the English teams got positive results agains the Italians, and of course Man U match at San Siro, I'm really positive this time Man U will get the win, not easily, but won't be really hard neither. Inter has been a really irregular team that has got results based on luck more than their own capacity.

Serious injuries in Inter central defense is the main worry for Mourinho, where Chivu, Materazzi and Burdisso are out of the game; Samuel is still questionable. No key injuries on Man U side.


Porto - Atletico Madrid OVER 2½ 1.91 (-110) [2 UNITS]

Interesting match here, where 2 teams far from favorite face in Portugal for the 2nd leg. 1st match was a 2-2 draw, and Atletico goes to Portugal with the obligation to score. 2nd legs usually are really interesting matches where most of the teams just care about playing some football and forget about strategies, usually 2nd legs are open games with more offense than defense. This will be that case (the odds have moved on our side).

Porto is missing several defensive players and Atletico has shown during the last matches that their a different team, and they can score in any play. Once a team scores, the game will be a really nice show, with a lot of opportunities and lots of goals :) and let's remember the GK's are not their stenght.

I also have a lean to the Atletico Madrid +½ @ 1.8 (-125) and let's bet 1 Unit on this. Atletico Madrid has improved a lot lately in a way more competitive league than the Portuguese. Beating Barcelona and getting a point from Bernabeu's having way more chances is speaking really good from them. They need to score and have enough potential to do so and get the result.


Barcelona-Lyon OVER 2½ @ 1.71 (-140) [2 UNITS]

Lyon needs to score at least one and Barcelona want to close the deal and advance. Barcelona's defensive woes are present as well as their powerful attack. Lyon has played really good away this UCL season, scoring in all those matches in Munich, Fiorentina and Bucarest. Definately Barcelona's match will be their thoughest test so far but the "Cules" defense is really weak, especially missing Puyol and Abidal. Mensah will miss the game for Lyon.
Open game with lots of chances, Barcelona will prevail and will score at least 2 goals. Lyon will score at least once and I can see a 3-1 Barcelona win.


Best of luck!

Champions League - March 10th

Record Stands at 7W-6L-3P for a 2.1 profit.

UCL is ready for the 2nd legs. Few interesting matches today that deserves attention.

Just as a reminder here are the 1st leg results:

Real Madrid 0 - Liverpool 1
Sporting Club 0 -Bayern Munich 5
Chelsea 1 - Juventus 0
Villarreal 1 - Panathinaikos 1


Bayern Munich -½ @ 1.81 (-125) [2 Units]

Bayern has the knockout round pretty much solved, and with key injuries such as Ribery, Toni, Borowski, Altintop we will see some rotation and players as Butt, Sosa, Podolski, Breno, Ottl in the starting 11. Despite this, Bayern is way stronger than Sporting CP and will get the win. The replacements will try to give a nice impression to Klinsmann and on the other hand Sporting will concentrate on finishing strong on the Portuguese Liga, in order to qualify for next year's UCL.


Best of luck!