The first round of matches in the Uefa Champions League concludes on Thursday and we take a look at all six games including Bayern Munich vs Bodo / Glimt and Manchester United vs Sabah
Fenerbahce vs Roma
Fenerbahce came through 3 rounds of qualifying to reach the League Phase. They beat Gornik Zabrze 2-1 on aggregate and then saw off Sturm Graz 3-0, winning both legs. After that a stormy clash with Lyon saw the teams finish all square at 1-1 in Turkey in the first leg and Fenerbahce won the return 2-1. A mixed start to the domestic league in turkey has seen Fenerbahce win 2 and lose 2, scoring 8 goals and conceding 6.
Roma have made the perfect start in Serie A with wins at home to Fiorentina and away to Lecce (both 4-0) and most recently they were 2-1 winners at home to Atalanta.
PSV vs Shakhtar Donetsk
As with the above game this is an early kick off. After 5 rounds of matches in the Dutch top flight PSV are second spot. They started with a draw at home to Sittard and then reeled off 4 straight wins, most recently 3-1 at Ajax.
Shakhtar have won 4 and lost 1 of their opening 5 matches in the Ukrainian Premier League where they are behind league leaders Polissya Zhytomyr on goal difference.
Bayern Munich vs Bodo / Glimt
At around 1 / 10 Bayern are the joint shortest price on Thursday’s UCL coupon. We are only 2 matches into the Bundesliga season where Bayern put Stuttgart away 5-1 in Munich before being held to a 0-0 draw away to Schalke.
Bodo took some big scalps in the UCL last season and they get another crack having come through 2 rounds of qualifying. Their clash with Royal Union SG went all the way to extra time with Bodo edging it 6-5 on aggregate. Their match up with Nijmegen was more straight forward with Bodo winning both legs to progress 6-1 on aggregate.
Como vs RB Leipzig
Como have made a solid start to the Serie A season with 7 points from 3 away games, drawing at Udinese and winning at Napoli (2-1) and Genoa (4-1).
Leipzig’s opening Bundesliga match delivered a 3-0 home win over Munchengladbach but they couldn’t follow up next time out when they went down 3-1 at Werder Bremen.
Man United vs Sabah
United are back in the UCL and they are overwhelming favourites to start with a win. They have been inconsistent in the EPL losing at Hull on the opening weekend before thrashing Ipswich (5-2) at Old Trafford and then drawing 2-2 at Everton.
Sabah Baku are from Azerbaijan where they top their domestic league with 3 wins from 3. They came through 4 rounds of qualifying to reach the league phase with the final hurdle seeing them beat H Beer Sheva 6-4 on aggregate.
Slavia Prague vs Lens
Slavia are unbeaten with 5 wins and 2 draws to top the Czech Republic’s top division, scoring 21 goals and conceding 5.
Lens started their season by beating PSG 1-0 in the French Super Cup and then won their opening Ligue 1 match at home to Auxerre 5-2. Thereafter it hasn’t gone to plan with back to back league defeats at Strasbourg (2-1) and at home to Lorient (1-0).
Thursday Bets
I’m looking for any time goalscorers on Thursday night and have identified 4 players who have been finding the net in their league games and who can hopefully take that form into European competition.
The bet is a Lucky 15 which comprises of 4 singles, 6 doubles, 4 trebles and 1 fourfold and if you are playing something similar and want to work out the odds of reward you can do so using our Odds Calculator.
Any time goalscorer bets:
Ricardo Pepe (PSV) even money
Donyell Malen (Roma) 6/5
Floria Thauvin (Lens) 5/2
Assane Diao (Como) 27/10
At the above odds 15 bets at R1 unit stake (a total outlay of R15) would bring in a gross payout of R202 if all 4 legs arrive.
Prices Sportingbet
Note, prices are subject to change