Three of our four bets came in last week, but Panathinaikos somehow conspired to lost to bottom-of-the-table Xanthi and render our latest attempt at the £10 to £1k challenge void. Thanks, chaps.
We dust ourselves and go again, with a minimal risk quartet of selections (that’s the aim anyway!) to get the ball rolling in our first attempt of the week. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as ‘sure bets’ in sport, certainly not in football anyway, otherwise we’d all be millionaires by now!
However, we’ve done our homework and hopefully come up with a bulletproof collection of four steps to kickstart the challenge.
Bet 1: Botafago +2 against Santa Cruz – £10 at 1/8
Thursday October 20, 00:45
We’re heading to Brazil for this attempt’s first selection, and we’re taking a healthy advantage in favour of Botafago (five wins from six) against Santa Cruz (six defeats in a row).
The visitors are looking to break into the top three of the Brazilian Serie A, while the hosts are all but relegated. They surely can’t win by three clear goals here, can they?
Bet 2: Stoke to Score against Hull City – £11.25 at 2/7
Saturday October 22, 15:00
Stoke’s resurgence is well timed, for them and us, as they travel north to take on a hapless Hull City.
The Potteries outfit have scored in each of their last four matches, but most importantly picked up positive results in their last three: draws with West Brom and Manchester United plus a victory last time out over beleaguered Sunderland.
Hull really are in dire straits at the moment: a run of four defeats compounded by conceding a ridiculous 17 goals, confirming that Mike Phelan’s honeymoon period is well and truly over. If Stoke can’t score against this Hull outfit, then they may as well pack up.
Bet 3: Lille vs Bastia – Under 3.5 Goals – £14.46 at 1/7
Saturday October 22, 19:00
A slightly twitchy one this, as betting on ‘unders’ always is, but we should have confidence in a pair of sides who have achieved this mark in nine of their last ten combined outings.
Also, neither of these teams have scored more than two goals in a single game in their last ten outings, so surely they won’t tear up that script this weekend. Bastia’s games average 1.67 goals, with Lille at 2.56, so clearly the numbers are stacked in our favour here.
For added comfort, only one of the last 22 Lille vs Bastia fixtures has gone over the 3.5 goal mark!
Bet 4: Rosenborg Double Chance against Odd – £16.53 at 1/9
Sunday October 23, 17:00
Rosenborg have lost once in 27 matches this season, and so by that token there is an approximate chance of Odd defeating them of around 3%.
The visitors have only won one of their last four too, which knocks that percentage down yet further, and in their last half-a-dozen outings have lost to the sides placed in tenth, eleventh and fifteenth in the Norwegian Eliteserien.
It would be an absolute statistical freak if this selection doesn’t come in….but then that’s football!