An incredibly difficult looking night from a betting point of view on Tuesday in the Champions League but there is one side worth supporting at the prices and Olympiacos can make home advantage count against Standard Liege.
While it is probably the least high profile of the eight matches taking place in Europe’s premier club competition, a profit is profit, no matter which team does the business, and Zico’s side will be looking to cement their position behind Arsenal in Group H with a victory over the Belgians.
Olympiacos have started the new season in fine form, winning six of seven games and remaining unbeaten domestically, and their Brazilian coach has built from the back. The signing of Swede Olof Mellberg was a shrewd one in the summer, he failed to settle in Turin with Juventus, and the former Aston Villa man is at the heart of a defence which has kept 10 clean sheets in its past 13 outings.
The Greek champions have conceded just two goals in the Super League all season and although they saw little of the ball on Matchday 2 at the Emirates, when beaten 2-0 by Arsenal, an opening night win over AZ Alkmaar was important.
Standard Liege shocked the Gunners as things got underway a month ago when storming to an early two goal advantage at Stade Maurice Dufrasne but they got nothing from the game following a typical Arsenal fight back and now look up against it. Liege had to rely on an injury time equaliser from Mouassa Traore last time out against their Dutch rivals and must also cope once again without the influential Steven Defour.
Defour, recently linked with Manchester United, is likely to miss the majority of the group stages with a broken foot and he is set to be joined on the sidelines on Tuesday by Igor De Camargo who was injured on international duty. Liege resumed with a 2-0 defeat at Westerloo following the break and a trip to Greece is never easy.
Olympiacos are not without their own injury problems, striker Matt Derbyshire will miss the tie, but in Enzo Maresca, the aforementioned Mellberg and evergreen Antonios Nikopolidis the host have a strong looking spine. Luciano Galletti is a genuine goal scoring threat from midfield and I’d certainly have the hosts nearer the 1.65 mark rather than the 1.83 available with Betfred.
1pt Back Olympiacos vs. Standard Liege @ 1.83 Betfred