Matchday 1 of the Uefa Champions League concludes on Thursday when our featured matches see Manchester City host Napoli and Barcelona travel to take on Newcastle at St. James Park.
Note prices quoted are subject to change
Manchester City 13/20 Draw 29/10 Napoli 38/10
Last season City made hard work of the UCL League Phase. They won 3, drew 2 and lost 3 to finish down in 22nd place and a play off place where they lost home and away to Real Madrid to bow out 6-3 on aggregate. City failed to win a major trophy last season but a third place finish in the EPL at least saw them qualify for this competition.
After 4 rounds of matches in the new EPL season City have 2 wins and 2 defeats against their name. They looked good on the opening weekend in a 4-0 win at Wolves and again last Sunday when they beat United 3-0 in the Manchester derby but in between they lost at home to Spurs and also went down at Brighton. Haaland has been finding the net on a regular bsis and he helped himself to 2 more in the weekend win over United.
Napoli were not involved in European action last season and that may well have helped them get the better of the Serie A title race where they eventually finished 1 point clear of Inter. As far as their start to the new domestic season is concerned Napoli top the standings on the back of 3 straight wins, at Sassuolo (2-0), at home to Cagliari (1-0) and most recently away to Fiorentina (3-1). Former City favourite Kevin De Bruyne is a new recruit to the Napoli squad as is Rajmus Hojlund who is on load from Man United.
The Verdict
City have been hard to work out this season and I'm just going to take a small interest in two of Sportingbet's featured plays.
Firstly the price boost for Kevin De Bruyne to provide an assist is a bit of a sentimental choice but he is up and running for his new club and I guess much of their attacking play with go through him.
Also their featured “Build A Bet” caught my eye, especially with Phil Foden back in form and finding the net at the weekend.
Bets: Player assists, De Bruyne 1 or more, was 5/1 now 6.75/1 with Sportingbet
Build A Bet
Both teams to score? Yes
Haaland shots on target 2 or more
Anytime Goalscorer Phil Foden
at 15/2 with Sportingbet
Click here for details of how to Build A Bet
Newcastle 19/10 Draw 11/4 Barcelona 23/20
Newcastle are back in European action on the back of a fifth placed finish in the EPL last season, they also won the EFL Cup to break a long trophy drought. They had an awkward transfer window which eventually saw them lose Isak to Liverpool, Wissa came in but missed a 1-0 home win over Wolves last weekend through injury although another new striking recruit Woltemade was responsible for the decisive goal. Other early season results saw Newcastle play out 0-0 draws at Villa and Leeds either side of a 3-2 home defeat to Liverpool.
In the League Phase of this competition last season Barca finished as runners up to Liverpool with a record of 6 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat and they scored 28 goals in that sequence, 6 more than the next highest total. They went on to beat Benfica 4-1 on aggregate in the Ro16 and a quarter final tussle with Dortmund finished 5-3 in their favour. Their semi final match up with Inter was a classic with Barca eventually going out 7-6 on aggregate. Barca went on to win the La Liga title.
After 4 rounds of La Liga matches in the current campaign Barca have won 3 and drawn 1 and are 2 points behind log leaders Real Madrid. At the weekend they thrashed Valencia 6-0 with 3 players, Fermin Lopez, Raphinha and Lewandowski all scoring twice. As a footnote for future matches, Barca are still waiting for permission to re-open Camp Nou for their home fixtures.
The Verdict
If you were offering me a free match result bet I'd probably press Barca but I think it will be competitive, especially in midfield where Tonali is my pick to find himself in the referee's book.
Bets: Player to be carded, Tonali at 9/4 with Sportingbet
Note prices quoted are subject to change