UEFA Cup and Champions League Preview

Its always difficult to compare the relative merits of two teams and pick a winner. When the two teams come from different countries its even harder – but in some cases it does present an opportunity. This week we have qualifiers for the UEFA Cup and Champions League on the cards, here are a few thoughts.

Tonight the action kicks off at Ibrox where Rangers entertain Red Star Belgrade, who appear to be in a bit of disarray. The visitors have recently sacked their coach and will be without two influential players in Dusan Basta and Igor Burzanovic. Their apparent lack of a goal threat will play into the hands of Rangers at home who will be looking to take a one or two goal cushion with them to Serbia. This is a must win for Rangers in footballing and financial terms and I think the 7/10 at William Hill might be worth snapping up before its gone.

Tomorrow sees Celtic play on the plastic pitch of Spartak Moscow in what is easily the most difficult tie for any of the British participants at this stage. Celtic’s away form in the Champions League is dreadful, in fact last season they lost 3 goals in each of their 3 away games on the road. The loss of Artur Boruc in goal could be a major blow on a night when Celtic will be expected to soak up much of the pressure. Spartak appear to be in good form in the Russian league, where they’re in pole position and are on an eight-game unbeaten run. Throw in Celtic’s patchy start to the campaign and there really is nothing to suggest anything other than a Spartak win. They’re currently just the wrong side of evens at 10/11 with Bet365 and BetFred, or you could back them at the slightly better price of 24/25 on the Asian Handicap (-0.5) at Ladbrokes.

Into Thursday’s UEFA Cup ties and a few matches have caught my eye. Young Boys are in decent run of form and have scored 12 in their last 3 home games, including a 5-1 drubbing of Basel. They’re up against Lens, who have made a fairly quiet start to the French season. Their only win so far, in 4 games, coming at home in the Intertoto. You can get 8/5 on Young Boys to win this first leg at Bet365.

I’ve also picked up a little ‘tip’ on Rabotnicki versus Zrinjski Mostar. Apparently Zrinjski have qualified via the backdoor, as UEFA punished Partizan who beat them 11-1 on aggregate. Rabotnicki are really short however and at 1/2 at BetFred I probably don’t enough about either side to take it on.

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