Football: Derbies Rock Major European Leagues this Weekend
Published August 31, 2018 by Florin P
The action heats up in the most important European championships, with high profile matches scheduled from Friday to Sunday night.
Most of the favorites picked up valuable points last weekend, in matches played mostly against newly promoted teams. Starting on Friday and until Sunday evening, they will try to double down on those positive results. This time, we have several high profile matches scheduled, including a handful of classic games between major title contestants.
Serie A Weekend Starts with a Classic
Italian football doesn’t save the best for last this weekend and instead schedules the Derby on Friday evening. At 7:30 PM UK time, AC Milan and AS Roma meet in the most anticipated match of this stage. Both teams have conceded three goals in the last match and the hosts are narrow favorites to prevail. Intertops Sports prices their victory at 3/2, while the visitors are given odds of 2/1. Punters can expect a high scoring affair and an exciting match all around.
Action Heats up at the Top of the Premier League
Manchester City dropped precious points in the last match played on the road at Wolverhampton. Now they have home pitch advantage on Saturday against Newcastle. The odds on straight win are not surprisingly extremely low and currently sit at 1/10. At 3 PM UK time, both teams from Liverpool play and the combined odds at bet365 Sports barely surpass even value. Punters who bet on the Champions League finalists and their city rivals Everton to win on the same slip can expect odds revolving around 1/1
Manchester United lost back-to-back games and are desperate to return to their winning ways on Sunday. At 5 PM UK time, the Red Devils, Arsenal and Tottenham play on the road against Burnley and Watford. 888 Sport offers identical odds of 13/20 on each of these teams to prevail. Tottenham have won all the matches played so far, while Manchester United and Arsenal lost twice in three matches.
Easy Weekend for Bundesliga Favorites
Bayern Munich and Dortmund surged in the second half of the match to win the opening round in the German Bundesliga. Now they play on the road and both are expected to prevail with relative ease. The reigning champions travel to Stuttgart on Saturday and in the match scheduled 5:30 PM UK time they are given odds of 3/10 by Winner Sports. On the same day, but two hours earlier, Leverkusen and Wolfsburg play one of the most promising matches, with the hosts credited with the first chance.
Dortmund is expected to have a slightly more difficult task on Friday at 7:30 PM UK time. They travel to Hannover to play against a team that has caused them plenty of headaches in the past. The hosts are undefeated in the last eight matches and prevailed in seven of those games. bet365 Sports offers odds of 6/10 on the visitors to prevail.
Monaco and Marseille Meet in the Southern Derby
The most anticipated match of the weekend in the French Ligue 1 is the one between Monaco and Marseille. Scheduled on Sunday evening at 8 PM UK time, it involves two of the main contestants for a Champions League berth. Monaco has home pitch advantage, but in the wake of recent results, they are not given favorite status by bookmakers. bet365 Sports offers identical odds of 2/2 to both the hosts and visitors to prevail, while the draw is priced at 5/2. The most recent match between them ended undecided.
Elsewhere, Lyon takes Nice in the first round of Ligue 1, on Friday evening at 745 UK time. Home pitch advantage and good results at Groupama Stadium explain why the hosts are only given odds of 2/5 by 888 Sport. There’s not much value in the odds of ¼ offered on PSG to win on Sunday afternoon either.
