Champions League Qualifiers: Betting Tips

I don’t know about you but I for one am glad to see the World Cup come to an end. Sure I enjoyed the blanket coverage on TV but I’ll just be happy to back to betting on club football and before we know it the action is getting serious already with qualification to the Group Stages of the Champions League at stake.

Here’s a few games that have caught my eye…

Birkirkara (Malta) v  MŠK Žilina (Slovakia)

Maltese Champions Birkirkara negotiated the previous round of qualifying largely in part due to a dodgy pitch in Andorra. FC Santa Coloma’s picth was ruled unplayable forcing the first leg to be postponed. This resulted in Birkirkara being handed a statutory 3-0 after the game was forfeited by their hosts. They then won the return leg 4-3 to progress 7-3 on aggregate. Hardly convincing stuff.

Slovakian champions MŠK Žilina will fancy their chances of killing the tie off in the first leg and exploiting those defensive deficiencies. Their first game of the season resulted in progress in the Slovakian Cup at the expense of Slovan Bratislava on penalties.

• Back MŠK Žilina at 2/5 with SkyBet

Red Bull Salzburg (Austria) v HB Tórshavn (Faroe Is)

The Austrians were hugely impress in this competition last season with victories over the likes of Lazio and Villareal before succumbing to Standard Liege in the last 32 and the gulf between these two could hardly be wider. That’s reflected in the betting with Salzburg unbackable at 1/20 but there is money to be made here however.

Tórshavn’s defence should be no match for Red Bull’s mutli-national squad and I think we can expect a glut of goals. Over 2.5 goals is availabe at 3/10 with Bet365 but more appealing is Betfair’s 4/5 on there being 4 or more.

• Back over 3.5 goals at 4/5 (Betfair)

FC BATE Borisov v FH Hafnarfjördur

Since these two sides met back in 2007 BATE have gained lots of invaluable European experience in both the Champions League and UEFA Cup competitions. That will make them hungry to reach the lucrative group stages this year again and should be able to take care their Icelanic counterparts at home in this one.

The Belarusians are on course for another league title and have been in pretty decent form recently winning 8 of their last 10. Hafnarfjördur aren;t in bad form either but they sit 3rd in their domestic league. Take the Belarusians to win the first leg.

• Back BATE at 1/3 (Coral)

Let me know if you’ve got any tips for this week’s games in the comments below or join the debate at our forum.

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