Barcelona vs Sevilla

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 As we head closer to the start of the La Liga season we see a potentially mouthwatering clash here as the UEFA Super Cup takes our attention.


It's an all spanish encounter that pits the Champions League winners against the Europa League winners, Sevilla.


Barcelona need very little introduction after recording a domestic treble last season and will be eyeing the same this season.


Sevilla, on the other hand have performed extremely well to retain the Europa League title, an extremely difficult competition to win.


Ok, we have established both are quality teams, let's get that out of the way. Oh, just stop rambling and get to the tip for the game? Ok, ok, sorry to bore you but I'm required to write a decent preview so get off my back :)


The interesting thing to note here is that Sevilla has been somewhat weakened over the transfer window with the departures of Carlos Bacca and Aleix Vidal who have moved on to AC Milan and Barcelona respectively.


Steven N'Zonzi, Iago Aspas, Gael Kakuta and Adil Rami form the replacements and Immobile has been provided on loan by Dortmund once more.


Sevilla need to cope with the loss of Bacca and were he still here I would find it hard to oppose the both teams to score option. However, the Sevilla pre season has been a ropy one with 3 wins from 8 fixtures.


Barcelona has been solid in pre season which was competitive for them playing a lot of high profile clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United, PSG, Fiorentina, Roma and LA Galaxy.


Neymar misses out due to injury while Alba is doubtful. Immobile should start after recovering from a broken nose.


All in all, can't see past Barcelona here and I will opt for the -1.5 AH as opposed to the both teams to score.


Seems the superior option at a better price.



Barcelona vs Sevilla betting tips Barcelona vs Sevilla betting tips conclusion Stake 9 Stake: 9/10

    Pick Barcelona -1.5 AH
    Odds 1.98

WBA vs Manchester City

Last Premier League game of the first round will see WBA hosting Manchester City. After finishing second in the previous season, Citizens want a title now and are desperate to start the season on the right foot, against a side that most likely will be battling in relegation battle this season. As for tradition, Citizens are doing well away to WBA, having won four out of last five matches, more concretely, last three consecutive games as well.

WBA did very few changes during the Summer transfer window, as they seem to be decided to focus on continuity with the players, after the club managed to get an easy salvation last season. They ended up thirteenth, with nine points more than relegating placed side – situation that they probably can only wish for this season as well and would probably accept it straight away. First choice goalkeeper Ben Foster will miss the start of the season and will be replaced by Boaz Myhill. Gareth McAuley is a doubt with a calf problem he got in a friendly against Swindon but has a chance to play. Rickie Lambert and Saido Berahino will partner in attack, in typical 4-4-2 formation of coach Tony Pullis, who is here since January. They did fairly well during friendly games, finishing the pre-season period with four consecutive victories. WBA (4-4-2): Myhill; Dawson, McAuley, Lescott, Brunt; Gardner, Fletcher, Morrison, McClean; Lambert, Berahino.


Manchester City, as said, finished second in the previous season and no doubt that all the fans now want the title only – at least when speaking about Premiership. Team had many friendly matches, with overall impression that the team is playing very offensive football – scoring many goals, but also having huge defensive gaps that the team will have to avoid as soon as possible in order to search for a title this season.

For example, they have won 8:1 over Vietnamese selection, but drew 2:2 against Roma and lost to Real Madrid 4:1 or in the last rehearsal before the Premier League starts – they lost to Stuttgart 4:2 at the beginning of August. Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Samir Nasri have all been suffering will illness in previous days, but all three are expected to be in the starting lineup this night. Yaya Toure and Gael Clichy are doubtful, while defensive midfielder Fabian Delph will miss the game due injury. Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Hart; Sagna, Kompany, Mangala, Kolarov; Youre, Fernandinho; Sterling, Silva, Nasri; Bony
Man City have won their last 7 matches against West Brom.

Citizens are favorites here, but as said, their defense needs a lot more time in order to start playing fluently. They can’t be trusted fully so early in the season and my first betting option goes with both teams scoring at least once.
Bet: Both teams to score @ 1.80

Bordeaux vs Reims

Bordeaux was far from successful side in the previous season, but the team still managed to get a Europa League ticket via Cup competition and the finals lost to PSG, while they only took sixth position at the table, seven points below the Champions League ticket holders.

They had to start the season earlier than usually, as the team already played two official matches in Europa League qualifications against AEK Larnaca, passing with 4:0 aggregate score. This means that the team started with friendlies already at the start of July and the team should be in more competitive form than the most of other French sides. They invested a lot during Winter, so the team wasn’t that much active in the transfer window, only signing replacement for right back Mariano. Offensive player Diego Rolan remains doubtful for this game as he has an ankle problem. Defensive midfielder Lamine Sane is injured for this game and his position will be covered by Gregory Certic. Forward Jussie is injured for months and months now, while midfielder Jaroslav Plasil’s involvement will be decided minutes prior the game.



Reims, on the other side, escaped from the relegation zone and battle with two consecutive victories at the end of Ligue 1, surviving in last moments of previous season. They are once again hoping and have set the target on staying in the best tier of French football.

However, the side didn’t change much in their roster, staying with most of the players that fought in previous season as they hope this is enough to stay in Ligue 1 once again. Reims is without injured midfielder Diego for the season opener. They let their most important player and striker Benjamin Moukando to join Lorient this week, but the coach Olivier Guegan said he believes in the options he has. He will probably start in a 4-1-4-1 formation with David Ngong leading the line as in previous season too.
Bordeaux have won 5 of their last 6 home matches in Ligue 1.

As said, Bordeaux is already in competitive form which they proved with easy qualification over AEK Larnaca. I believe Reims can only be worse than they were in the previous season and everything except an easy victory for Bordeaux would be a surprise for me.
Bet: Bordeaux Wins @ 1.73

Hull City vs Huddersfield

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 Hull City suffered relegation from the Premier League and they will have the unenviable task of returning to top flight in their first attempt.


Hull City are a class above most of the teams in the Championship and with proper motivation and team chemistry they can be an extreme force this season.


With players like Jelavic and Hernandez up top, Snodgrass, Livermore, Huddlestone and El Mohomady they shouldn't have been relegated in the first place and hopefully this season they will offer more goals which is the main reason they were relegated in the first place.


They have been able to retain most of their top players and I like the price of the home win here.


Huddlersfield finished a lowly 16th in the Championship and are notably poor travellers. They finished the season with a 7 unbeaten run with draws in the last 3 fixtures.


Dean Whitehead's signing from Middlesborough will please manager Chris POwell.


All in all, I like Hull's chances here, they have had the better of the visitors recently, having won their least 4 games h2h, 3 at the KC stadium and one away from home.


Only one of those wins was by more than a single goal so that has dampered my hopes for the -1AH selection.


Straigh win at the best price of 1.75 .



Hull City vs Huddersfield betting tips Hull City vs Huddersfield betting tips conclusion Stake 8 Stake: 8/10

    Pick Hull Win
    Odds 1.75

Creteil vs Bourg-Peronnas

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 Even they lost few important players ( left the team Piquionne, Seck, Ndoye, Genest, Essombe all first choice players and Diarrassouba) Creteil made the surprise of 1st round snatching a win away at new comer Red Star. Some good signing were made but anyway I predict a difficult season for Creteil also due their decrease in power this year. For this game they will recovered 1st GK Kerbouriou but Gerard is injured.


Also BP will be one of the team involved in relegation battle. They will play their home games at Guegnon 120 Km far away of their own stadium, so we can actually say all 38 games will be played on the road... And for a newcomer this will be decisive factor. Still an unknown team for me but from what I saw against LeHavre.... they are poor. Is true they met one of the best team in the L2 at this moment, losing 1-3. Not to much changing in the squad only few players from lower league; remains to see how long they will keep their start striker Pape Sane.


Two poor teams make the decision difficult. I'll go for more experimented team in L2 who will try to win as much games on their on pitch in order to stay safe till the end in L2.


Home win. gl

Creteil vs Bourg-Peronnas betting tips Creteil vs Bourg-Peronnas betting tips conclusion Stake 8 Stake: 8/10

    Pick Creteil
    Odds 2.25

Shirak vs Zrinjski

 I thought for a while about this game, and I was wondering if the bosnian side is capable to take a good result there in Armenia. Sometimes is difficult to evaluate how powerful are two teams in these low leagues, and that will be the main problem of the Europa League's matches, but in my opinion Bosnian league is BETTER than Armenian league. And the odds are still changing in favour of the guests, that 2 days ago were TOO much favourites.


Zrinski finished 3rd last season, and stepped back from last year, when they won the domestic league and played against Maribor in UCL's qualification round. This is a extremely solid team at home, where has lost just one game (vs Sarajevo in Bosnian Cup) since 04/2013, with an impressive 1/44 games lost during that run. Far from home, as everybody could imagine, is a different team. I guess they're very confident in his game at home, and as guests they tries to play very defensively. Last season they conceded 13 goals in 30 league games, and playing this game at the start of the season, in my opinion, will see less goal chances than a game in middle of the season. Zrinjski is under 2.5 goals in 20 of his 23 last matches, and as away team is under 2.5 in 9/10 games. They drew in a only friendly game this new season (1-1 vs Zeljeznicar). Now they have a new coach that seems that doesn't like to play defensively, but the team will need some time to play they way his coach wants. Marinovic was the Borac Banja's coach last season, and the team finished with 26 goals scored and 26 received in 30 games played. He said that they want to go through, but the travel is uncertain, because they don't know how good is Shirak (lol, scouting rules).


Shirak is still the favourite here. It's a team that has been improving last years in domestic competition. This was a weak team since 2012, but they're the last 2 years in a good level. The main squad is formed by local players, but last season they sourprised signing 2 Ivory Coast players. Both two scored the 50% of the team goals, and are right now the main danger for guests. The backbone's squad is slightly old, with some years playing together, but they alternate some young players and others +35yo players. Shirak is a scorer team when play with teams with less quality upfront, but they struggled when play against Alashkert, Pyunic and these kind of armenian's top teams. For sure won't be the same a game between them and a low-classified team, and a game against these bosnian guys.


Bosnian side, seems that moved well in the summer transfer, and add some good pieces to his squad. They lost Crnov, but signed a Serbian players Zeravika and Filipovic came from the domestic league teams, as young bosnian player Zakaric. One acquisition from outside Bosnia, Mesanovic, that returns to the country after his year in Croatia (Osijek), but he won't play that one, as Zakaric.


All in all, I could see a rough away team, that is unlikely that lost by a +2 goal margin. Zrinjski +1 is @1.60, but most of times this kind of bet is for void, so I'll choose the under, that I think it will happen more than 55% of time. Without see any game of these two teams recently, it's hard to venture for a double chance's opportunity with guests, that pays @2.15, but it's an interesting opcion for small stakes.


PD: Odds are rising fast for guests. Shirak pays @1.46 two days ago and today is @2.15 now at 1:00pm, and dropping for goals under in some sits that puts this bet around @1.60, but many other still have @1.75-@1.80. I think the market is a bit confused with that game.

Shirak vs Zrinjski betting tips Shirak vs Zrinjski betting tips conclusion Stake 9 Stake: 9/10

    Pick Under 2.5
    Odds 1.83

Dinamo Tbilisi vs Gabala

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Dinamo Tbilisi from Georgia welcomes Qabala from Azerbaijan in the first Qualifying round of the Europa league. Both teams finished third last season but the hosts with much smaller difference to the champion than the visitors. Dinamo has much more experience in Europe playing CL qulifications and EL Qualifications. They are a multiple Georgian champion and in 2013 and 2014 most recently.


Dinamo is ranked 157 by UEFa while Qabala is placed 20 places lower. But Qabala is worth more by transfermarkt and made investments in last seasons. They have players from Ukraine, Belarus, Romania and recently brought some solid players like Vernydub from Zorya, Stankovic from Inter Baku, Zenjov from Torpedo Moscow, Antonov from Aktobe. A lot of the players have arrived recently and I doubt they will make a compact unit so early.


The same thing happened last year I remember when Qabala made a debut in EL against Siroki Brijeg. A big investment was made and the odds droped big on Qabala but they fell miserably and lost at home 0:2 and 3:0 away. They don`t have the same quality and especially not the experience the hosts have.


The teams played some friendlies and Qabala played 1:0 and 1:1 against Inter Baku while Dinamo played 0:1 against Shkendija, 3:1 against Domzale and 2:0 against Zavrc.


Dinamo has lost just 1 EL home game since 2007 and it was 0:5 against Tottenham in 2015. They have some notable results like 1:1 vs AEK, 2:0 KR, 1:1 Sturm, 2:0 Crvena Zvezda though it must be said not recently. Still I fancy them to make the most of their home ground against a team of dubious quality.



Dinamo Tbilisi vs Gabala betting tips Dinamo Tbilisi vs Gabala betting tips conclusion Stake 8 Stake: 8/10

    Pick Dinamo Tbilisi
    Odds 2.00