Yesterday was the last day for qualification to the Champions league group stage. All the 32 teams that will play in the Champions League are qualified now and today its time to find the 40 teams that will play in Europa League (former Uefa cup)  this year.

 Three teams from Premier League (Fulham, Everton and Aston Villa) is trying to qualify for playing European football this season and two of those have almost secured their place in in Europa league after the first round. Both Everton and Fulham won their matches pretty easy and I can’t see how any of these two can miss the chance to qualify.

 The third team, Aston Villa, put their self in a tough situation after their loss with 1 – 0 away against Rapid Wien in the first game and now have to win the return home at Villa Park. And its from that match that I have my recommended pick for today.

 Aston Villa vs. Rapid Wien Handicap 0:1, Home win @ 1.75

 I think that Aston Villa will win this game pretty easy and they are also forced to do that since they lost the first game with 1 – 0.

 That means that have to win with at least two goals margin to qualify to the group stage.

 Aston Villa is way better then Rapid Wien from Austria and I can’tse them miss this chance even though they have to win with two goals. If they win with like 2 – 1 or 3 – 2 then Rapid will advance on the away goal rule.

 Aston Villa started their Premier League season badly with a 0 – 2 loss against Wigan at home. But in their last game they showed that we can count with them even this year. They won at Anfield road, away against Liverpool, with impressing 1- 3.

 My bet means that Rapid starts with a 0 – 1 lead and that Villa have to win with at least two goals. I really think that they will do that in favour of playing home at Villa Park and the pressure to advance. So I find this bet really good to 1.75 in odds.

 Down here you can find all the results from the first round of this last qualification. See if you can find more bets:

  Sivasspor 0  -  5 (both matches have been played) FC Shakhtar Donetsk 0  -  3 and  0  -  2

MFK Košice  -  AS Roma 3  -  3

FK Bakı  -  FC Basel 1893 1 – 3

FK Teplice  -  Hapoel Tel – Aviv FC 1  -  2

FC BATE Borisov  -  PFC Litex Lovech 0  -  1

Bnei Yehuda Tel – Aviv FC  -  PSV Eindhoven 0 – 1

EA Guingamp  -  Hamburger SV 1 – 5

Trabzonspor  -  Toulouse FC 1 – 3

PFC CSKA Sofia  -  FC Dinamo Moskva 0 – 0

PAOK FC  -  SC Heerenveen 1 – 1

NAC Breda  -  Villarreal CF 1 – 3

FC Metallurh Donetsk  -  FK Austria Wien 2 – 2

SK Sturm Graz  -  FC Metalist Kharkiv 1 – 1

SK Rapid Wien  -  Aston Villa FC 1 – 0

FC Dinamo 1948 Bucureşti  -  FC Slovan Liberec 0 – 3

FC Steaua Bucureşti  -  Saint Patrick’s Athletic FC 3 – 0

FC Twente  -  FK Qarabağ 3 – 1

SC Vaslui  -  AEK Athens FC 2 – 1

SK Slavia Praha  -  FK Crvena Zvezda 3 – 0

FK Sarajevo  -  CFR 1907 Cluj 1 – 1

FK Partizan  -  MŠK Žilina 1 – 1

Brøndby IF  -  Hertha BSC Berlin 2 – 1

FC Sion  -  Fenerbahçe SK 0 – 2

KKS Lech Poznań  -  Club Brugge KV 1 – 0

AFC Ajax  -  ŠK Slovan Bratislava 5 – 0

KRC Genk  -  LOSC Lille Métropole 1 – 2

S.S. Lazio  -  IF Elfsborg 3 – 0

NK Maribor  -  AC Sparta Praha 0 – 2

Galatasaray AŞ  -  FC Levadia Tallinn 5 – 0

Genoa CFC  -  Odense BK 3 – 1

SL Benfica  -  FC Vorskla Poltava 4 – 0

Fulham FC – FC Amkar Perm 3 – 1

Werder Bremen –  FK Aktobe 6 – 3

Everton FC  -  SK Sigma Olomouc 4 – 0

NK Dinamo Zagreb  -  Heart of Midlothian FC 4 – 0

Stabæk IF  -  Valencia CF 0 – 3

CD Nacional  -  FC Zenit St. Petersburg 4 – 3

Athletic Club Bilbao  -  Tromsø IL 3 – 2

 My odds is picked from Bwin-odds

 Best regards

 Amrish

One may be forgiven for thinking that this years US Open mens singles event will be another cake walk for the Swiss phenom, Roger Federer. Having won the past five US Opens, Federer is on course to make it a sixth straight title which is something that hasn’t been achieved at Flushing Meadow since Bill Tilden in the 1920’s.

But is Federer value at a current 1.70 or should we be looking further down the pecking order this year? One has to remember that Andy Roddick has won here before and before you start to write off his chances, he came within a whisker of winning Wimbledon and probably should have finished Federer off in the fifth set tie break.

Roddick at a current price of 20.00 seems the stand out value of the tournament to me and is my pick at that price. He is a totally transformed player under new coach Larry Stefanki and anyone who can come as close as he did to beating Federer on grass has my vote. Roddick seems content with both his game and his personal life these days and I was very surprised to see him at that price.

At any other stage, Rafael Nadal would be exceptional value at 5.10 but there are question marks against his name these days. Forced to miss Wimbledon due to his troublesome knee then this will probably be a slam too soon for the energetic Spaniard. In fact surpassing Federer’s total number of slams which at one stage looked a certainty may now take some doing if the Spaniards career is to be plagued by injuries.

Also Nadal has yet to even reach a US Open final even when he was at his peak so it seems too much to ask in this years event and laying Nadal may just be the value here. The really interesting one is Andy Murray, a finalist last year and now the new world number two, he has still to break his duck in a slam event.

He has the game to win a slam and it seems only a matter of time before he wins one but will it be the 2009 US Open? At a current price of 5.00, it is hard to say whether that represents value or not as he still has the psychological barrier of not winning a slam to overcome. With the rebirth of Roddick as a major force then his path to winning will be tougher this year although how much of that is offset by the fact that Nadal is not at his peak and Federer is another year older?

Novak Djokovic, a finalist in 2007 could be an interesting bet at 12.00. He also put up a great showing last year beating Roddick in the quarter-finals only losing in four sets to Federer in the semi-finals so the indications are that Djokovic has the game to win this. A less than fully fit Nadal and a player in Andy Murray who has still to win a slam and Novak Djokovic could just slip through the net this year and take the title.

As always of course, the main focus will be on the big three in Federer, Murray and Nadal. Murray has been winning titles consistently but still has to break his grand slam duck. The question is “how long can Roger Federer still keep at the top of his game?”

There are not many players who can stay at the top of the mens game at thirty years of age and Federer is fast approaching that age. It is hard to see Novak Djokovic only ending his career with one slam and if the price of Roger Federer at 1.70 doesn’t ignite your passions, then a punt on Djokovic or Andy Roddick just might.

By Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Bet on tennis at bwin.com

English cricket was dealt a blow after being destroyed in the fourth Ashes test by the rampant Australian team. Buoyed by their encouraging stand at the crease during the third test where they faced defeat Australia made it extremely difficult for England to win the Ashes by levelling the series at 1-1. Whether England manage to pull off a heroic victory or not, it remains to be seen whether England are going to be able to replace Andrew Flintoff who will play his last International match in the fifth Ashes Test.

With Kevin Pietersen injured and suffering a major set-back in his treatment after getting an infection in his scar tissue, Flintoffs absence and England’s subsequent collapse identified some gaps in the team. Any team used to fielding these players would feel their absence, particularly at the crease but England failed to respond in any way to their absence and lost heavily. Pietersen is a world class batsman capable of high scoring runs and classy strokes. When wickets begin to fall you need a natural leader and Pietersen offers this stability. Flintoff is an all-rounder so England must replace quality batting and bowling with his retirement. England failed to blood Jonathan Trott in time for the series and are now considering recalling Mark Ramprakash after seven years out of the team. This suggests a worrying lack of confidence in young county cricketers currently coming through.

One encouraging positive development to emerge from the Ashes series has been the improved wicket keeping of Matt Prior. Prior had dropped some catches in the past that put a large question mark over his ability. His solid performances will help stabilise the England side that have been spoilt in the past by long and reliable runs by wicket keepers Jack Russell and Alec Stewart. Prior must now improve on his batting contributions as both Russell and Stewart were constantly reliable with the bat.

Players like Stewart Broad, Graeme Onions and Graham Swann will form the core of the new players in the team with the leadership coming very much from Paul Collingwood, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen. It is imperative, however, that other players currently unknown to viewers playing county cricket be given the chance to get some experience. There is currently a large gap between the England players and everyone else, highlighted in the consideration of 39 year old Ramprakash over other young cricketers. England has failed to give any players a chance coming through. Ramprakash or other older players may fail to recapture previous achievements at the highest level, despite their undoubted talents.

Also required to leaders on the field and in the dressing room are the likes of Alistair Cook and Monty Panesar. These experienced campaigners must accept that without the star quality of Flintoff the onus is on them to replace the benefits he brought to the team. A comparison can be found in Manchester United coming together to replace the unmatchable gifts of Cristiano Ronaldo. The success or failure of English cricket depends on the key decisions the selectors make in the next six months regarding the blooding of players and nurturing of current players currently suffering a loss in form like Ravi Bopara.

Whatever the result of the last Ashes test the biggest fight will be securing the future of English cricket as great players like Andrew Flintoff bid a sad goodbye to top level cricket having served the game so well. Hopefully other emerging stars can pick up the mantle and run with it, so we can win the Ashes more comfortably next time round.

By Malcolm Clarke

Last Sunday saw one of the most dramatic Open Golf Championships in years. But anyone who watched that event could have made some profit by laying all of the leaders during the final round. None of the leading contenders apart from Retief Goosen had experienced recent success in a major championship.

We had veteran Tom Watson, despite the fact that he has numerous majors to his name, the pressure and fatigue were bound to tell on someone of his age and also because he hasn’t been in that situation for a long time.

We had Ross Fisher, Mathew Goggin, Chris Wood, Stewart Cink, Lee Westwood and Tom Watson all in contention going into the final day. The price swings during the final days play tend to be more severe than at any other stage of the tournament with the betting public en masse seeming to believe that anyone who takes the lead is going to stay there.

The pressure of leading the Open with just a few holes to go is immense, some players can handle that but most can’t. In fact there have been many cases where the winner has basically stumbled over the line. One only has to look at the catastrophic finishes made by Thomas Bjorn, Jean Van Der Velde and Paul Azinger in recent Opens to witness this. Then we have the six shot lead that Greg Norman threw away in the 1996 US Masters during the final round.

There have been countless other examples down the years that indicate that leading a major is difficult even for the very best and it takes a special golfer like Tiger Woods to have a really high conversion rate. So what this means is that it can be a profitable strategy to lay the leader (within reason) going into the final round and also during the final round as well.

The Open Golf Championship was a great example, Tom Watson who was the overnight leader lost the lead almost immediately. He retook the lead several more times, each time presenting an opportunity to lay him once again. Ross Fisher quickly took the lead and at one stage held a three shot lead. An eight on a par 4 meant that he dropped like a stone and he never recovered.

An early eagle by Lee Westwood saw him take a two shot lead but he blew his chances by finding sand on the 18th. Mathew Goggin and Chris Wood also had the lead or a share of the lead at one stage. So at different stages of the final round we saw so many tournament leaders that it was almost surreal at times.

But on reflection given the closeness of the situation and the overall level of inexperience with regards to the field when it comes to winning majors then it was hardly surprising. When you lay the leader then you are already laying a short priced competitor and the normal fluctuations of a round of golf will merely take their normal route and you can make money.

Yet the market as a whole tends to over react in situations like these and every leader seems artificially short and every player who loses the lead seems to be out of it in the minds of many punters. The best tournaments to adopt this strategy are the ones where there are numerous players all within a handful of shots and when you throw in a few major rookies then what you have is a recipe for players taking the lead and then losing it all afternoon. That can only point to one thing for the shrewd traders and that’s profits.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

Its less then one month left to the start of Premier League but this is a time that’s more interesting then one can think. The silly season is has been going on for a while and lots of players have changed clubs. In England less players then “normal” have changed clubs and for the first time in several years it feels like more star players is leaving Premier League then coming.

 The biggest loss is of course Christiano Ronaldo who left Manchester United for Real Madrid in Spain. And the Spanish Primera division looks like the biggest winner in this year’s silly season. Players like Ronaldo, Kaka and many more have joined that league and more are coming if you believe the newspapers. It seems that Zlatan Ibrahimovic will leave Inter to join Barcelona very soon.

 But there have been lots of movements in England as well and I think that most of the squads are completed. With less then one month left it’s hard to buy lots of new players and start to put together a team for a manager as well. I am pretty sure that some players will join and some player will drop off the teams but roughly I think that the teams will look a lot like they are doing today.

 And my opinion is that this means its okay to start looking for some valuable bets now. I believe is that I have that much information that’s necessary to start searching for winning bets. Lots of betting-markets are already offering lots of betting opportunities for Premier League season 2009/2010 and I have chosen to pick my bets from Bwin since they have god odds and a great rage.

 

Witch team finishes highest in Premier League 2009/2010

 Aston Villa vs. Tottenham, my pick: Aston Villa to finish highest @ 2.00

 This is a long time bet for the whole season. According to the odds Tottenham are favourites to finish higher then Aston Villa in the league and I don’t agree with that.

 Tottenham might always have a lot of pressure on them both from themselves and from their supporter, media and so on. But lately they haven’t fulfilled these expectations. They have a great squad with lots of good players in their offensive and with Robbie Keane back in the squad from the start of the season makes the fans to believe that hotspurs can challenge their biggest rivals Arsenal in the fight to finish top 4 and take the last Champions League place.

 But I rather think that Aston Villa will be one of the teams that can try to break the “top 4 wall”, maybe together with Manchester City. Martin O’Neal has been building up this team for a long time now and slowly approached the big 4. Last year they had a big gap to Arsenal back in autumn. But like so many years before, Arsenal came back and took the fourth place. And that’s often the outcome when a team with thinner squad comes in to the critical moment around Christmas/ New Year; they get some injuries and start to loose points against normally weaker sides.

 Last year Tottenham had a bad start of the season and only took two points in their 8 first games and that was the biggest reason why they only ended in the middle of Premier League. Tottenham haven’t bought any big player to the coming season but lost Didier Zokora and Frazier Campbell who was there on loan from Manchester United last season. And I don’t think that they are planning to by any big players either.

Aston Villa lost their captain G Barry to Man City and that’s of course a big loss. But I still think that they have a strong team and with young upcoming stars as Luke Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor I really think that they can fight with the bigger teams this year.

 My feeling is that Aston Villa still is a more solid team compared to Tottenham and think that they can finish higher then spurs in the league.

 The odds is picked from Bwin-odds

 Best regards

 /Amrish

After Jenson Buttons electrifying start to the season with Brawn GP and his subsequent lead in the drivers championship, many were predicting that he wouldn’t be caught and that the world title looked automatic. It was just the other day that Australian driver Mark Webber remarked that the only person capable of stopping Jenson Button this year given how the season had gone so far and the lead that he had was Jenson Button himself.

Webber remarked how Button just does not make mistakes and that if his mechanics and back up team did the business then the title would surely be Buttons for the taking.

Well after Sundays race at the Nurburgring in Germany then that assessment may have to be looked at closely. Many people thought that Red Bull’s win a few weeks ago was a one off but subsequent displays both in practice and in races indicate that this is a team that is definitely on the up and could run Brawn GP closer than what anyone ever imagined just a few short weeks ago.

Red Bull’s Mark Webber scored his maiden win at the German Grand Prix and according to his team boss, could be the start of a series of wins. Christian Horner remarked that Webber could even be the “next Nigel Mansell”. What he actually meant by that was in the similarity in how long it took both drivers to notch their first ever win in a Grand Prix.

This was Webber’s first win in 130 races stretching back to 2002 when he made his debut. Webber had to win the hard way and it certainly was no easy ride as he suffered a drive through penalty after a collision with the Brazilian, Rubens Barrichello close to the start of the race.

Another warning sign for Brawn was that Webber’s team mate Sebastian Vettel made it a Red Bull first and second ahead of Felipe Massa. Button came fifth in a car that was obviously struggling in the conditions. In fact Buttons team mate Rubens Barrichello accused his own Brawn team of costing him the race.

Barrichello remarked “it was a good show from the team of how to lose a race. I did all I had to do, I was first to the first corner. They made me lose it”. These are very strong words and could even be an indication that all is not well within the Brawn GP team.

Not surprisingly team boss Ross Brawn countered this by stating that “when he looks at the facts he will realise that we were not quick enough. Although he has a point in that it wasn’t a great race for us. He didn’t really have a full picture of everything that was going on”.

Meanwhile things don’t appear to be improving for the reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton who appears condemned to making one of the poorest title defences in history. After finishing 18th, Hamilton was obviously disappointed after starting 5th on the grid and he was definitely hoping for a podium finish.

But despite this, Hamilton was unlucky on lap one and suffered a puncture which ended all hopes of ending on the podium. The drivers standings now make more interesting reading with Buttons lead at the top now just 21 points over Vettel. Mark Webber is now in third place overall on 45.5 points and is one point ahead of Barrichello. Whoever said that this title race was over was being a tad premature and the next couple of races are going to make for very interesting viewing indeed. Can we stand another finish like last year?….I know that I can.

What do you think? Place your bet now!

Its July time again which essentially means one thing, Tennis at Wimbledon, Cricket and of course the Open Golf Championship. This year the event is being held at Turnberry, the home of one of Tom Watson’s greatest triumphs. Funnily enough the ageless Watson was the clubhouse leader during the first round as I put pen to paper writing this article.

But Golf betting affords the punter some very big differences over other forms of sport. Firstly there are not many sports where competitors who have odds as high as 66/1 or even 100/1 have a realistic chance of winning. If you looked at football teams in the Premier League who had odds of 66/1 or 100/1 to win the title then you would essentially be looking at teams with virtually no chance.

It is the same with sports like Tennis, take a look at the 66/1 shots before a Grand Slam event and you would be forgiven if you said that you had never heard of them before in your life. Golf betting is definitely an avenue where shrewd punters can cash in. This is basically because you can have a stupidly low strike rate and still make money.

If you placed a bet on a player at 50/1 to win a tournament every week and only had two winners during the entire year then you would still have made money despite only having two winners out of a total of fifty two bets. It is for this very reason that the owners of some of the dubious betting systems that are out there totally miss the boat when it comes to quoting strike rates.

If a particular betting system has a 70% strike rate then that does not automatically mean that it will make money. It is the long term average return on investment that matters. You could have a strike rate of 70% but yet still not be making more than 100% of every dollar or pound that you wager.

As we have just seen, your strike rate in a sport like Golf can be very low (which it will be due to the size of the prices if you are betting on event winners) and yet you can still make money. Another interesting feature of Golf Betting is that it isn’t as dependent on having an up to date feed if you are considering betting in running on the exchanges. In a fast moving sport like Horse Racing then not having the fastest picture feed possible is a recipe for disaster.

But there are time delays in Golf, like after the players have driven for instance. It will take them several minutes to wait for their playing partners to drive off, walk the distance to their ball and then play their next shot. This doesn’t place as much dependency on you having the same data feed on your television as the next person if you time it correctly.

Doing your homework on certain holes on a course and how they shape up against the styles of certain players can also reap dividends. Many courses favour certain types of player and certain swings are more suited to some courses than others. A Golfer can play his entire career on a certain course without ever doing well enough to win.
The really great players of course can and do adapt to any course and is why they win so many tournaments during their careers! But even on courses that suit a players swing, you still may find certain holes where birdies are hard to come by for specific players and a quick look back through the record books can reveal some very interesting patterns. During the earlier rounds then this would tend not to have an effect. But the overall winner market during the last few holes will witness some very violent swings and this is where huge potential profits can be made.

/ Carl “The Dean” Sampson

The ends of this season of Premier League is close and with four games left to play (besides Man United and Wigan, they have one more game to play against each other) some of the teams in the league have a lot to play for (both in the top of the league and bottom) and others don’t have anything else then their own honour left.

 

 

I am pretty sure that Manchester United will win Premier league even this year but behind them Liverpool and Chelsea is battling for the second place. Arsenal has secured the fourth place witch means that they can qualify to Uefa Champions league next year as well.

 

Behind the top 4 Aston Villa and Everton have a gap to the chasing teams and sure will get the Uefa cup places for next year. Then we have the teams from seventh placed Fulham down to fourteenth placed Portsmouth that I think don’t have to worry for the relegation and so they have better places in the table to play for.

 

And in the bottom of Premier League five teams are struggling to avoid the bottom three places that mean relegation and lots of economic loss.

 

Bolton, Stoke And Portsmouth are not totally sure to avoid relegation, but I think that their 7-8 points down to Newcastle is enough with only four games and 12 points left to play for.

 

It’s good to have these thoughts in your minds before you pick your coming bets for the coming games. It can make a big difference on the team’s attitude and will to fight if you are struggling for survival or just are playing a game.

 

Here is my best pick from the coming round:

 

Stoke vs West Ham, home win @ 2.40

 

Stoke is one of these teams that should feel pretty sure to avoid relegation but still hasn’t secured a place to next years Premier League yet. Before this round they have eight points favour to Newcastle and Middlesbrough and should go for a win to feel complete secure.

 

West Ham has made a great season and their eighth place, which they have at the moment, is way over expectations.

 

Stoke is really strong home at Britannia Stadium and it’s at home that they take the majority of their wins and points. To show these facts they have 9 wins in 17 games at home and have taken 32 points out of their 39 at home. This game is a classic example of one team that are struggling for their survival and another that maybe is the better side, but can be happy with their season and maybe will fall back a bit in their intense.

 

And that’s what I think will make the difference in this game to Stoke’s favour. A good odds here and I pick the home win as my first pick of the week.

 

Sunderland vs Everton draw @ 3.20

 

Sunderland has lot to play for in the bottom of the table, but at the same time Everton is a hard opponent.

 

Normally I would had bet on the away win for Everton in this game (with the same odds) but now when Sunderland have everything to play for I think that both teams will be pretty satisfied with a draw.

 

Sunderland will probably go for the win as well, but against Everton with a well balanced team and strong defence I think that ok with a draw.

 

Before this round starts Sunderland is four points ahead of Newcastle and Middlesbrough, and since I don’t think that both these teams will win (against Liverpool and Man United) Sunderland will keep their distance to at least one of these teams if they manage to get a draw here, and that’s why my feelings says draw between these two teams.

 

The odds are picked from Bwin-football.

 

Best Regards

 

/Amrish

Today its time for the Uefa cup after two great Champions League evenings. Just like the Uefa Champions League have arrived to the Quarter final stage and its time for the rematches even in this tournament.

 

The schedule for today is following (CET):

 

18:30 Dynamo Kiev vs. Paris Saint Germain
20:45 Manchester City vs. Hamburger SV

20:45 Olympique de Marseille vs. Shakhtar Donetsk
20:45 Udinese vs. Werder Bremen

 

In the first Quarter Final round three out of four games ended with a two goal win for the home team (Hamburger SV vs Manchester City 3 – 1, Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Marseille 2-0 and Werder Bremen vs. Udinese 3- 1).

 

The fourth game (Paris SG vs. Dynamo Kiev) ended 0-0.

 

I think that Shakhtar, W Bremen and Hamburger are big favourites to go through to the Semi-finals while Dynamo Kiev should have good chances to take the fourth place.

 

Even though Manchester City, Marseille and Udinese are pretty strong teams it’s hard to come back from two goals down.

 

Here are my best picks for today’s Uefa cup quarter finals:

 

Dynamo Kiev vs. Paris Saint Germain, home win @ 1.75

 

Dynamo have turned out to be a really good team and after 0 – 0 in the first game they have to go for a win here. All other draws but 0 – 0 will take the French team to the semi finals.

 

Generally I think that the East European teams are a bit underestimated. Both Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk have potential to win this Trophy just as Zenit did last year when nobody talked about them before the semi finals.

 

Dynamo Kiev showed their strength when they knocked out the Spanish side Valencia in the first match of the knockout round in this Tournament.

 

Paris SG is going towards their best season in many years. For a long time they fought with Marseille and Lyon at the top of the league and even though they have fall back to a sixth place at the moment they are only five points behind Marseille in the top of the table.

 

Even though they are going towards a nice season my Guess is that this will be Paris’s last game in the European Uefa cup.

 

Dynamo Kiev is a really strong home side and with their fanatic supporters I give them great chances to win this game and advance to Semi final. Look out for this team; it might even be the winners of Uefa cup 2009.

 

 

Udinese vs. Werder Bremen, draw @ 3.40 

 

My guess is that Werder Bremen is the stronger side compared with Udinese and that they will go through to Semi final after this return game. They were the stronger side in the first game and won very fairly with 3 to 1.

 

Now I think that Bremen will try to hold on to the tie as long as possible and if they do that I don’t think that Udinese have the skills to break the German wall.

 

Bremen is the best side, but knowing that they two goals to go on they will probably focus on the defence and my guess is that this game will end 0 – 0 or 1 – 1.

 

3.40 is good odds for the draw here and I bet that as my second and last bet for today.

 

In the rest of the games I think that Shakhtar and Hamburger SV will go trough to the Semi finals, but I find it hard to find the outcome of today’s returns. So its not worth any bets from me.

 

All odds are picked from Bwin-football-odds.

 

Good Luck

 

/Amrish

Its time for the Quarter finals of the Champions League 2009.

 

Eight teams remaining and they are all four games away from the final at Rome, and five games from the trophy.

 

Totally four of eight teams that are remaining in the tournament is from England (Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea). We have two teams from Spain remaining (Barcelona and Villarreal) and the two teams remaining is from Portugal (F C Porto), Germany (Bayern Munich).

 

The first two Quarter finals will be played Tuesday 7^th of April (Manchester United vs. Porto and Villarreal vs. Arsenal) and the other games will be played the following days, 8^th of April, (Barcelona vs. B Munich and Liverpool vs. Chelsea).

 

Here are my thoughts for the games that are played Day 2:

 

Barcelona vs B Munich, over 2.5 goals @ 1.75

 

This could have been the Champions League Final of this year.

 

Barcelona are probably (together with Manchester United) most peoples favourites to win Champions League. But I said very early that Bayern will be this tournaments dark horse.

 

Barcelona are big favourites to win this Quarter Final against Bayern and go trough to the Semi finals against either Liverpool or Chelsea but I am pretty sure that the German side will give them a though battle.

 

Barcelona have more players in their squad who can win this game for them like Thierry Henry, Leo Messi, Samuel Etoó, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Bojan and so on, this list can be even longer.

 

But all the German teams have a fantastic ability to play as a team. Both their national team and club teams are hard to beat and they often combine entertaining and effective football into a great mix.

 

Even Bayern Munich has some players who are world class players. Their biggest star is defiantly Franck Ribery. But with players like Luca Toni, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslaw Klose and Lucas Podolski Bayern has lots of potential match winner’s as well.

 

I think that Barcelona should be favourites in this game, but not that big as they have become (1.50). I think that this can be a great game to watch with lots of goals so I choose to pick over 2, 5 goals (three goals or more to win) as my pick of the day. 1.75 is an very good odds on that bet since this is two pretty offensive teams.

  

                                                                                                          

Liverpool vs. Chelsea, home win @ 2.05

 

These two teams know each other more then ever. They have been competing both in the Premier League and Champions League the last years and Liverpool has an advantage in their Champions League games.

 

Liverpool is in a great shape right now, or what else can I say after win 4 – 0 against Real Madrid in the rematch of Champions Leagues knock out stage 1. After that they won away against Manchester United with 4 – 1 and they followed that up with a brutal 5 – 0 win against Aston Villa home at Anfield Road.

 

Chelsea isn’t easy to defy but my guess is that Liverpool will take this first round thanks to the home advantage.

 

The odds is picked from Bwin-Football

 

Best luck

 

/Amrish