Champions League Betting: Tuesday’s Matches

Before the season has even begun, some teams are about to face one of their most important matches of the 2010/11 campaign already. Take the likes of Dynamo Kiev, Zenit St Petersburg, Ajax, Fenerbahce and Celtic, regular faces in the Group stages who all find themselves two qualifying rounds short of the tournament proper and faced with the very real prospect of missing out on Europe’s premier competition.

Here’s a look at some of tonight’s Champions League qualifying action and where there’s money to be made;

Omonia Nicosia v Red Bull Salzburg

The Austrians were impressive enough in last year’s Europa League to suggest that they’ll cause Omonia Nicosia some problems over the two legs and if last season’s away form is anything to go by then 5/2 (Bet365) on the away win could look like a bit of value. Red Bull racked up wins against Levski Sofia, Villareal and Lazio on their travels and in the season before the recorded a win at Dinamo Zagreb at this stage of the competition. Most recenlty though they lost 1-0 in the Faroes in the previous round but the tie was done and dusted by then courtesy of a 5-0 first leg home win so we can forgive them that one.

There’s not much can be drawn from the Cypriots 5-0 aggregate win over Macedonian side Renova Cepciste in the previous round although they’ve a pretty decent home record themselves and won the Cypriot Championship without losing a single game at home (from 13).  With that in mind, and because I can’t find a bookie who has a market on Salzburg to score it looks like it’d be best to side with the Austrians in the Draw No Bet market at 6/4 (William Hill).

Litex Lovech v MŠK Žilina

Bulgarian champions Litex should be good enough to see off Slovakians MŠK Žilina who struggled somewhat to get past Birkirkara of Malta in the previous round. In fact they lost opening leg by a goal to nil which doesn’t bode well for a step up in class tonight.

The Slovakians do have a few games under thei belt already this month but if Litex can continue their run of 15 games unbeaten at home then they should oblige at odds of 8/11 (Ladbrokes) and record a comfortable first leg lead.

TNS v Anderlecht

It’s tough to know where to go with this one. As far as the bookies are concerned it’s got away win written all over and when you compare the two clubs’ relative standings in European football and their operational budgets this should be no contest. But as we know that’s not usually how this game goes. The New Saints can be backed at 19/2 (betChronicle) but only those TNS die-hards will be getting stuck into that price, however it wouldn’t surprise me if they managed to cause the Belgian champions a fright or two.

The Asian Handicap gives TNS a +1.5 goal of a start and that can be backed at 1/1 with Canbet but that’ll be tougher and tougher as the game goes on so I’m more inclined to go with the half-time handicap where you can get TNS +1 at William Hill at 6/5 (please note that this isn’t an Asian Handicap market and if Anderlecht lead by 1 goal or more at half-time you’ll lose you bet). C’mon the TNS!!!

Feel free to post your tips for tonight in the comments below.

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