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Champions League First Playoff Round Betting Tips
Teams are now one step away from Champions League football this season and the next round of qualifying fixtures are set to be exhilarating to say the very least. The fixtures have been drawn and teams from Spain to Slovenia are bidding to compete with Europe’s finest next season.
We at Free bets have done our research and picked out a value treble for th first playoff round of the Champions League across Tuesday and Wednesday night.
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Firstly, we believe Scottish champions Celtic should have too much for Kazakhstani champions Astana. Brendan Rodgers has done a marvellous job since taking over at Celtic Park last summer, and the Bhoys win away at Rosenborg could be his best result yet.
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Unbelievably, Celtic are unbeaten in 50 competitive games under the former Liverpool boss and, with talents like Moussa Dembele, Scott Sinclair, Kieran Tierney and Erik Sviatchenko in their ranks, the former European Cup winners are steadily starting to catch the attention of the neutrals. Astana will have been delighted to have seen off Legia Warsaw in the previous round, but Celtic are a real force right now and should have too much for an Astana side who sold their top player Nemanja Maksimovic to Valencia this summer.
Our second selection is perennial Champions League regulars Olympiacos, who have drawn Croatian outfit Rijeka in this stage. The Greek champions were unusually poor in their home tie against Partizan Belgrade in the last round, but their 3-1 away win in the first leg meant that it didn’t make a difference.
Rijeka’s route to this round came against a Red Bull Salzburg side who haven’t once made it to the group stage in their last five attempts and now look to be declining. Despite their 2-2 draw with Partizan, Olympiacos are generally very strong in Greece and have signed Emmanuel Emenike, Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Panagiotis Tachtsidis and Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez to strengthen their squad for the upcoming season.
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Our final pick is Jorge Jesus’s Sporting Lisbon, who are featuring in their first qualifying round of the season. Sporting made it to the Champions League group stages last season where they gave Real Madrid a run for their money in one match, and have made positive steps in recruitment despite allowing Ruben Semedo to join Villarreal.
Bruno Fernandes and Marcos Acuna have joined for fairly big fees and will contribute to an unpredictable attack, while veterans Jeremy Mathieu and Fabio Coentrao have arrived from Barcelona and Real Madrid with ample experience to shore up their backline.
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Most importantly, Sporting have managed to hold onto star talents William Carvalho, Adrien Silva, Rui Patricio and Gelson Martins as it stands, and all of these players are Champions League quality stars. With the talent they have at their disposal and the experience and the tactical nous of their manager, Sporting should have this tie wrapped up in the first leg.
