Connect with us

Sport

The dangers of betting on big sides after European ties

The dangers of betting on big sides after European ties

This weekend’s set of results will not have made many punters happy, that’s for sure. The top teams have to lose on occasion, obviously, and if they didn’t then football would get boring pretty fast, but usually you can bank on a few of them to get your bet headed in the right direction.

Of the 6 English teams that partook in European competitions last week only 1 (Arsenal) managed to win this weekend. Tottenham and Everton lost at home to WBA and Crystal Palace respectively, two teams that you’d expect them to beat 9 times out of 10. Liverpool looked sluggish as they succumbed to an impressive display by West Ham and, while they played out an entertaining fixture, neither Chelsea nor Manchester City had enough to grab the 3 points.

And this is a trend that doesn’t only hold true in England; this weekend Portuguese giants Porto only managed a draw at home to Boavista, Inter Milan could only gain a point away at Palermo, PSG put in a lethargic performance as they drew 1-1 at home with Lyon and, of the 4 German teams in this season’s Champions League, none of them were able to get 3 points.

Betting against the big sides is, of course, not a fool proof system. Real Madrid won 2-8, Barcelona won 0-5 (as did AVB’s Zenit), and Greek champions Olympiakos comfortably defeated Veria 3-0. For some teams the European hangover doesn’t seem to be as big a problem as it is for others, but there is a definite correlation between playing midweek and struggling a few days later in domestic competition.

Although not all of the big teams are in any way guaranteed to put in a poor performance after a European jaunt, it’s definitely something worth considering the next time the HAD15 or Colossus follows Champions League and Europa League games.

The next round of European fixtures look particularly challenging with Chelsea having an away trip to Portugal, Man City facing a tricky home tie with Roma and Everton contemplating how to deal with a round trip of almost 5,000 miles as they play Russian side Krasnodar, so make sure you think twice before betting on the bigger teams!

 

Recent Posts