Thursday, July 13, 2006

UEFA Cup matches today ......


Just going to put a couple of very small bets up. I was going to get heavily involved in the first, but have seen some "line" movement against my selection, as they are from Albania and we have seen some "strange" results from their teams, stakes are reduced.

Tirana, have strengthened their team with a top striker and a couple of other quality signings, remember,we are talking about Albanian level here. They will be disappointed to miss out on the Champions League this year, having won through to the second qualification round of that tournament in each of the past 2 years.

They travel to Croatia to meet Varteks who finished third in the league last season, not quite as impressive as it sounds. Only 11 points clear of relegation, Varteks were 18 points behind the 2nd placed club and 29 adrift of the champions ! The general standard in Croatia has definitely deteriorated.

Having lost 5-6 players since last season, including probably 2-3 of the best, two replacement signings were not registered in time to play today. The coach is unhappy with their pre season form, he admits that Varteks are in bad shape and would be happy with any win over Tirana. Under the circumstances, taking the visitors +1.5 goals seems the obvious choice.

I have been informed by a Swedish friend that Atvidaberg are playing in a stadium 50km from their home and are expecting an extremely low crowd, around 3-400. The visitors, Etzella, from Luxembourg are poor, in 8 previous european encounters their record is 0-0-8, goals 4-26. So they are conceding around 3 per game, which is about what I expect today.

The asian line is set at -2.75 goals, think that is on the money, more or less, but the visitors are hardly prolific, so the goal line of 3.75 has plenty of interest. If we take the under, we will lose half the stake with 4 goals, to lose the whole bet there would have to be 5 scored. Atvidaberg are not in the best shape in Superettan, have only scored 11 in 8 home games and are not at their home ground anyway. Going to side with the under.

2 points Tirana +1.5 2.16 asian line
2.5 points Atvidaberg-Etzella under 3.75 goals 1.80 asian line

Good Luck.

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