Ah, the three best football competitions in Europe give the average punter a nice midweek bonus to kill those midweek blues – Champions League, Europa League and the Championship.
The Champions and Europa Leagues are in the first leg of the first knockout stages with all the big teams starting to play each other, whereas further down the football food chain in the Championship each game is fast becoming a high stakes knockout equivalent up the top of the table as the Top 7 are within 7 points, and just 5 from 2nd to 7th with Derby looking the only side capable of breaking away after loading up with EPL rejects in the January transfer window.
The big game in the Champions League this week is Manchester City v Barcelona with Man City warming up with a 5-0 training run against Newcastle and Barcelona suffering a shock home loss to Malaga as the lead ins. Further trouble off the field as Barca players were snapped coming out of the local casino in the wee hours, no doubt relaxing with a few dollars in the Penguin Pays machine, because who doesn’t want Penguin free spins. Whether it will affect them in Manchester is yet to be seen.
The other games aren’t bad either with Arsene Wenger reunited with his old club, and first place of major success, Monaco. Runaway Italian leaders Juventus are up against the runaways at the other end of the Bundesliga Borussia Dortmund, who with a few wins have now escaped the drop zone, but are still along way from returning to this comp next year. Unless they win it. The poorer cousins of their respective leagues Leverkusen and Atletico Madrid square off in the last of this week’s games.
The Europa League has a fine selection of second best European teams fighting for the competition that ensure their weekend fixtures are tough and provide an excuse in advance for poor performances. Worth it though, the winner gets a free pass into the Champions League next year.
As for the Championship, all the top 7 play teams lower down, providing good chances to boost their promotion chances or slip on a unplanned banana skin.
Anyway, enough of our shit, here’s the games, and our fearless predictions.
| CHAMPIONS LEAGUE | TUES PM/WED AM OZ | |
| MANCHESTER CITY | vs | BARCELONA |
| JUVENTUS | vs | BORUSSIA DORTMUND |
| CHAMPIONS LEAGUE | WED PM/THU AM OZ | |
| ARSENAL | vs | MONACO |
| BAYER LEVERKUSEN | vs | ATLETICO MADRID |
EUROPA LEAGUE
THU PM/FRI AM OZ
| Dinamo Moscow | vs | Anderlecht |
| Zenit St. Petersburg | vs | PSV Eindhoven |
| Besiktas | vs | Liverpool |
| Fiorentina | vs | Tottenham |
| Inter | vs | Celtic
|
| Dynamo Kyiv | vs | Guingamp |
| Salzburg | vs | Villarreal |
| Legia Warszawa | vs | Ajax |
| Borussia M.Gladbach | vs | Sevilla |
| Sporting CP | vs | Wolfsburg |
| Everton | vs | Young Boys |
| Athletic Club | vs | Torino |
| Club Bruges | vs | AaB |
| Olympiakos | vs | Dnipro |
| Napoli | vs | Trabzonspor |
| Feyenoord | vs | Roma |
CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES
[soccer-info id=’20’ type=’fixtures’ style=’blue_light’ limit=’12’ /]
[soccer-info id=’20’ type=’table’ style=’blue_light’ columns=’#,Team,MP,W,D,L,F,A,G,P’ title=’CHAMPIONSHIP TABLE’ limit=’24’ /]
| CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MULTI | $1 for $24 |
| BARCELONA to win | v Manchester City |
| DRAW | Juventus v Dortmund |
| ARSENAL to win | v Monaco |
| ATLETICO MADRID to win | v Bayer Leverkusen |
| CHAMPIONSHIP MULTI | $1 for 56 |
| IPSWICH to win | v Birmingham |
| LEEDS to win | v Brighton |
| DERBY to win | v Charlton |
| OVER 1.5 GOALS | Brentford v Blackpool |
| SHEF WED or DRAW | v Millwall |
| WOLVES to win | v Fulham |
| WATFORD to win | v Rotherham |
| EUROPA LEAGUE MULTI | $1 for $79 |
| CLUB BRUGGE to win | v Aalborg |
| EVERTON or Catholic Church to win | v Young Boys |
| DINAMO KYIV to win | v Guingamp |
| SEVILLA to win | v Bor. Monchengladbach |
| ZENIT ST PETERSHURG to win | v PSV |
| NAPOLI to win | v Trabszonspor |
| DRAW | Feyenoord v Roma |
