Scottish Sides Need Strong Away Performances
February 18th, 2008
UEFA Cup Betting Preview – Round of 32 Knockout Phase: Second Legs (Feb 21)
The chance of a British UEFA Cup winner, for the first time since Liverpool in 2001, remains a strong possibility with all five Scottish and English sides unbeaten after the first leg of the UEFA Cup knockout phase. All the return legs conclude this Thursday, giving punters a third day of European action, following on from the excitement of the midweek Champions League fixtures.
Scottish Sides Need Strong Away Performances
Both Aberdeen and Rangers may rue the opportunities lost in their first leg UEFA Cup home fixtures. The Dons twice led Bayern Munich at Pittodrie, but were pegged back to 2-2, and now face an uphill struggle at the Allianz Arena. Aberdeen’s battling performance was against disappointing recent domestic form, which continued on Saturday with a 3-1 defeat at Hibernian. They now need to produce a real shock without several key players as coach, Jimmy Calderwood, is missing Jamie Smith, Derek Young, Jackie McNamara and Richie Byrne. In contrast Bayern Munich produced an impressive 3-0 away win at Hannover on Saturday, cementing their place at the top of the Bundesliga, with all goals from Italian international, Luca Toni.
PinnacleSports.com make Bayern Munich favourites 2.010 (-2 & -2.5)* with Aberdeen 1.917 (+2 & +2.5)*.
Rangers maintained their lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League winning 2-0 at Kilmarnock on Sunday, but coach, Walter Smith, was disappointed the win wasn’t more comfortable. “We need extra sharpness up front, and hopefully we can start to show more of a killer instinct in front of goal.” The Gers were unable to find the net at Ibrox in the first leg of their UEFA Cup tie against, Panathinaikos, despite creating plenty of chances. At least they prevented the Greek league leaders from gaining a valuable away goal but the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium is a tough place for any team to get a result. Their aggregate score in three home games for this UEFA Cup campaign totals 8-0, including against another SPL side, Aberdeen.
PinnacleSports.com make Panathinaikos favourites 1.980 (-0.5)* with Rangers 1.943 (+0.5)*.
* All Odds subject to change so check out the latest prices online live across all the top rated bookies at BookieLabRat.com.
Entry Filed under: European Football,Sports Betting
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