Tag: "Porto"

World Cup Betting: Plenty of problems for Portugal to deal with

A poor qualifying campaign, a couple of key injuries and not getting the best out of Cristiano Ronaldo right now are just some of the problems Carlos Queiroz has to deal with, as if being in the “Group Of Death” wasn’t bad enough, says Ben Lyttleton. “But their qualifying campaign produced more questions than answers while Queiroz has clearly failed to win over his players who prefer the more laid-back approach of his predecessor Luiz Felipe Scolari. Fans even booed the team in their March friendly against China in Coimbra.” Benfica’s 1-0 win over Sporting Braga last weekend practically tied up the league title for them, set to be their first since 2005 and only one for 15 years. After coming from two goals down inside ten minutes to beat Assoaciao Naval 4-2 last night as well, Benfica are now six points clear with five games still to play and, after beating Liverpool 2-1 in the Europa League quarter-final first leg, they are ( 2.22 ) to reach the semis and ( 7.0 ) to lift the trophy. And so it comes as some surprise that the Portugal squad at this summer’s World Cup might not contain a single Benfica player in it: yes, much of the side is South American, and the world’s audience will be able to see talents like Angel di Maria (Argentina), Ramires (Brazil) and Oscar Cardozo (Paraguay) but there has been some head-scratching at coach Carlos Queiroz’s decision to ignore the claims of two key players

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Apr 06, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Champions League Betting: Arsenal v Barcelona

Tobias Gourlay sees something beautiful on the horizon as Barcelona travel to North London.

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Mar 30, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Champions League draw: Arsenal draw the short straw and face Barcelona

The reaction on Betfair to the Champions League and Europa League draws as English sides are handed tough draws. “Arsenal will feel like they drew the short straw in today’s draw when they found out they will face defending champions and 3.0 tournament favourites Barcelona.

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Mar 19, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Premier League Betting: Wenger gets the big calls right in Arsenal’s glory bid

Nicklas Bendtner had the game from hell for Arsenal but his manager kept faith win and the Danish striker repaid him handsomely. Frank Gregan wonders if this might be their year in Europe. “If Bendtner had had another game from hell against Porto and Arsenal had been dumped out of Europe, fingers would have pointed firmly in Wenger’s direction.” There’s a time and a place for laughter on a football pitch. It normally happens when somebody comes up with a quick one-liner and it’s usually either aimed at a team-mate or one of the officials. There’s often a polite smile or two shared with an opponent when the ball has gone dead and there is a lull in the battle but very seldom do you share full-blown guffaws.

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Mar 17, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Premier League Betting: Hull City v Arsenal

Title chasing Arsenal face a trip to Hull City on Saturday and Dan ‘The Betting Man’ Fitch thinks that even without Cesc Fabregas, they will have too much for Phil Brown’s Tigers. Best Bet: Back over 2.5 goals @ 1.71 . Recommended Bets: Back over 2.5 goals @ 1.71 ; Back both teams to score @ 1.84 ; Back Arsenal to be winning half time/full time @ 2.2 . Arsenal may have been beaten at home and away by both Chelsea and Manchester United, but it will be the final league table that determines who will be the top team in England.

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Mar 12, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Champions League Results: 3-2 in Florence matched at 95 as Gunners also open fire

Arsenal put five past FC Porto as Fiorentina crash out on away goals in Florence…. “The Italians were matched at 3.5 to win the match and that was ultimately a winning bet, as was the 3.7 Bayern were matched at to qualify. The big winning punters were those who predicted the 3-2 scoreline though, that was matched at the most attractive odds of 95.0.” Arsenal sent a chilling message to the remaining Champions League contenders that they mean business after dumping FC Porto out of the competition by winning the second leg 5-0. A hat-trick from Nicklas Bendtner did most of the damage in a game where they were matched at a high of 1.7 on Betfair to win.

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Mar 09, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Premier League Betting: The difficulty of keeping something in reserve

With Chelsea’s Hilario currently looking like a stranger to the goalkeeping position, Dan ‘The Betting Man’ Fitch looks at the difficulty of keeping a decent reserve keeper interested. Arsene Wenger doesn’t just have the problem of finding a reliable reserve keeper, as Manuel Almunia is equally rubbish. He’s now back in the Arsenal team that can be backed at 1.71 to beat Porto. Back in the day, a substitute bench was actually a bench with a substitute on it, rather than collection of heated car seats filled by several unmotivated millionaires.

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Mar 09, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Champions League Betting: Arsenal v Porto

Tobias Gourlay is happy to stick with Porto ahead of their second leg with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Recommended Bet: Back Porto +0.5 on the Asian Handicap at 2.4 v Arsenal Two weeks ago, a couple of mistakes by Arsenal’s reserve goalkeeper, Lukasz Fabianski , helped Porto to a 2-1 win in Portugal. The result has helped bring the Portuguese champions’ To Qualify price in from 3.0 at the kick-off of that match to 2.26 ahead of the second leg at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday evening. Backing Porto To Qualify at 3.0 was suggested in these parts and you can now lay them off for guaranteed profit if you feel this is as good as it gets for Jesualdo Ferreira’s team. Need you be so cautious though? Historical precedents for this match have been investigated elsewhere on the website and suggest the value still lies with Porto

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Mar 08, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Ligue 1 Betting: More steely than vintage but Bordeaux march on

Ben Lyttleton talks us through the events of an extraordinary match in which Bordeaux drew with Montpellier on Sunday, two dropped points that the pursuing pack couldn’t capitalise on…. The round of matches before a Champions League second-leg tie is often a good time to lay top teams and last weekend it was no different. Of the sides in European action this week, Porto, Fiorentina, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Lyon all dropped points and Real Madrid just avoided doing soafter a last-minute winner sealed an astonishing come-from-behind 3-2 win over Sevilla. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the Lyon result: after all, Lyon had rediscovered their form since the new year and went into their match at rock-bottom Boulogne with six wins from their last seven and the opportunity to put further pressure on leaders Bordeaux before their Sunday-night match against second-placed Montpellier. And though Hugo Lloris extended his run without conceding a goal to six games, Lyon’s strikers drew a blank in their goalless draw. That left the teams around them with the chance to take advantage, but none did so: Lille drew 1-1 at Saint-Etienne and Marseille drew 1-1 with Lorient. That left three points separating the top six sides before the top two Bordeaux and Montpellier went head-to-head in one of the most dramatic games of the Ligue 1 season. The match burst into life after half an hour when Mikael Ciani, Bordeaux’s superb centre-back who won his first France cap last week in the friendly against Spain, was sent off as the last man for bringing down Victor Montano

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Mar 08, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post

Champions League Betting: First leg winners in “super” pole position

Number-cruncher supreme “Magic” Matthew Walton goes through the record books and the stats to tell us how to approach the Champions League second legs…

“As losers in the first leg of their ties the figures suggest, and do so quite strongly, that each of Real Madrid, Arsenal, Fiorentina and Chelsea (all group winners) are under a major threat of elimination.”

Let’s start with a look at the statistics. In the past five years there have been 40 ties played in the R16 of the Champions League.

Of those 40 ties, on 21 occasions the team who won the first leg has gone on to win the tie outright and progress through to the QF’s – which, by the same token, means that 21 times the team who lost the first leg has been eliminated from the competition.

What we also find is a mere four sides, that’s all, who in the past five seasons have lost the first leg but have come back to win the second leg and so win the tie outright.

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Mar 03, 2010 | 0 comments | View Post
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