A week of football action is ahead of us, as both Champions League and Europa League qualifiers continue. Two of the more intriguing ties in European football, taking us to Nice in France with Benfica in town for a Champions League qualifier and to Athens, where Panathinaikos play hosts to Shakhtar Donetsk in Europa League qualifying.
As ever, look out for this week’s Bet of the Week as we look to find back-to-back winners.
Nice - Benfica Champions League Qualifying
- Start: Wednesday, 6 August, at 20:00
- Venue: Allianz Riviera, Nice, France
- TV Coverage: TNT Sports
- Fun Fact: Both teams were founded in the same year, 1904, yet have never faced each other in a competitive match throughout their history.
Betting
The bookies are showing Benfica plenty of respect here, making the Portuguese outfit 2.15 to win the away match, with Nice 2.88 and the draw 3.6 with Unibet.
Alternatively, you can side with Benfica to win with both teams scoring at 3.5, or with Nice to win and goals at both ends, which is a 4.4 chance.
Goals are expected with over 2.5 goals the 1.62 favourite and ‘unders’ available at 2.05.
Nice’s main man – Evann Guessand – who can operate as a striker or wide forward is priced up at 7.5 to be first goalscorer and at 2.2 to score at anytime while Vangelis Pavlidis, who had a stand-out season for Benfica last year and is being monitored by several top clubs, is 4.5 to open the scoring, and 2.5 to score at any stage.
Summary
Nice did it the hard way in terms of making it to the qualifying stages of the Champions League.
They did so by finishing fourth in the table on the same points as Lille and bettering them courtesy of a superior goal difference that was boosted by a final-day 6-0 win at home to Brest. But they had a poor campaign in the Europa League and didn’t make it out of the Group Stages, suggesting their squad isn’t strong enough to be competitive on two fronts.
As for Benfica, a strong Champions League campaign last year gave them a much-needed financial boost, and there was certainly no disgrace in eventually being knocked out by an excellent Barcelona side. On the domestic front, they finished as runners-up to Sporting Lisbon by just two points, before also losing the Cup final to the same opponents after being ahead with just a couple of minutes to go in the match.
They did, however, get some sort of revenge by beating Sporting 1-0 in the Portuguese Super Cup on Thursday night.
This is familiar territory for Benfica, who know the importance of the Champions League in terms of appearance and prize money, as well as the chance for their star players to go up in value on the back of good performances in it.
It all helps to explain why Benfica are favourites, but early-season ties, when the teams aren’t well-drilled, are always tricky, so this is unlikely to be straightforward. Besides, the winner of this tie will then also have to negotiate the Play-Off round in order to get into the Champions League Group Stages, so there’s still plenty of work for Benfica to do.
Panathinaikos - Shakhtar Donetsk
- Start: Thursday, 7 August, at 19:00
- Venue: Votanikos Stadium, Athens, Greece
- TV Coverage: Sky Sports, ESPN
- Fun Fact: Panathinaikos’s stadium was purposely built for the 1982 European Athletics Championships, but was then extensively upgraded for the 2004 Summer Olympics, including the iconic curved roof and state-of-the-art facilities. It’s Greece’s largest sporting venue. The official name is the Olympic Stadium of Athens “Spyros Louis” in honour of Spyros Lius, the Greek water carrier who won the marathon at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, symbolising the enduring Olympic spirit.
Betting
The bookies are having trouble splitting the pair with Panathinaikos 2.5 to win the first leg, Donetsk 2.6 and the draw 3.4.
In a tricky match to call, the better option may be to go with a low-scoring match, and it’s somewhat surprising that Betfred make ‘unders’ the slight outsider at 2.05.
Both of Panathinaikos’ recent matches against Rangers (in the previous round) and both of Donetsk’s last two domestic matches ended with under three goals, so a slow burner is what we might get here, with teams more likely to take more risks in the second leg.
Summary
Panathinaikos finished in third last season, a big 10 points off the winners, Olympiakos.
That gave them the chance to qualify for the Champions League, but they fell at the first hurdle, losing 2-0 in Glasgow to Rangers and only managing a 1-1 draw at home. Qualification to the Europa League isn’t the best second prize, but it’s certainly better than no European football at all, so they’ll be taking this one seriously.
As for Donetsk, they were in the Champions League last season but not for long, going out in the Group Stages after finishing 24th and missing out on the Playoff Round. Like Panathinaikos, they finished third in their domestic league, 8 points behind Dynamo Kiev,
That third-place finish meant a tie against Ilves Tampere, who won 6-0 at home and drew 0-0 away, followed by a showdown with a good Besiktas side featuring the likes of Tammy Abraham, Rafa, Joao Mario and former Benfica man O. Kokcu. But Donetsk was far too good for them, winning 4-2 away and then 2-0 at home to easily progress 6-2 on aggregate. They also won 1-0 at the weekend in their first match of their domestic campaign.
Donetsk has five games already under their belt this season, while Panathinaikos have played just those two against Rangers. In that regard, it’s an advantage to Donetsk.
Betting Tip of the Week: Back ‘No’ in Both Teams to Score in Panathinaikos - Donetsk
Last week, it paid to go with a low-scoring affair in the second leg of Braga - Levski Sofia as our Bet of the Week, our wager on under 2,5 goals at 2.2 winning easily as the match ended 0-0, with Braga eventually progressing thanks to a single goal in extra time.
And it might be worth going to the well again in the Panathinaikos v Donetsk match. We mentioned that ‘unders’ was available at 2.05, but at 2.2 you can back ‘no’ on the ‘both teams to score’ market at Betfred. It would have been a winner in four of Shakhtar’s matches so far this season and in one of Panathinaikos’s two games to date.
