Champions League Matchweek 3 Best Bets

Feyenoord have lost their opening two games by an aggregate of 7-1 while they recently lost at home to lowly Breda in the Eredivisie and so this looks an excellent opportunity for Shakhtar to distance themselves from Napoli, who travel to Man City. Shakhtar have already beaten Napoli and have been strong travellers in Europe in recent times, winning seven of nine road games since they joined the 2015/16 Europa League knockout stages. They’re in fine form domestically having won eight of nine unbeaten games, whilst they last lost an away game way back in March of last year. Argentine striker Facundo Ferreyra is in excellent form having netted four goals in his last five appearances in all competitions and he should have plenty of joy against a Feyenoord side that shipped three inside the first half-hour against City.

Spartak were dominated by Liverpool for large periods at the Otkrytiye Arena in their last Champions League game but managed to hold on for a 1-1 draw, aided by the support of a fanatical home crowd, and they’ll be hopeful of frustrating Sevilla in a similar manner. Sevilla have of course had enormous success in Europe in recent years but their away record since 2015/16 is just W2-D5-L5 with one of those victories coming in Spain over Bilbao, whilst the other was against a Dinamo Zagreb side last term that shipped 15 goals and failed to score a goal in the entire group stage. What’s more, Spanish sides have won just seven of 22 trips to Russia in European competition since 2006/07 and so we’re siding with Spartak on the Double Chance in the hope that they can remain unbeaten in this campaign.

Juve eased past Olympiakos at the Allianz Stadium meaning they’ve now won 12 of 17 unbeaten Champions League home games since 2014/15, keeping a clean sheet in 11 of these. Indeed, if we exclude opponents that we have ranked in Europe’s top 10 then they’ve kept a clean sheet in seven from nine, though they scored more than twice on just one occasion. While they’re generally showing more attacking intent domestically we expect them to rein that in to an extent in the Champions League. Sporting were edged out 2-1 at Real and 1-0 at Dortmund in the group stages last term and we expect something similar here, with the 1-0 and 2-0 correct scores both of interest. However, we’ll stick with the win to nil for our best bet.