Trading Talk – Champions League Preview: Match Day Two

The Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A or La Liga? Every spread bettor will have their favourite but few will argue the Champions League is not king of the continent’s competitions. The intra-Europe power struggle moves on to match day two and Sporting Index spread punters are, as usual, spoilt for choice on where to test their wares.

Manchester United got off to a steady if not spectacular start with victory in Istanbul against Besiktas. Their likely contenders for winning Group B look like being Wolfsburg, and it is the German side who visit Old Trafford for the second round of games. Buyers of United’s win index spread will know that the German champions have made a mixed start to their domestic title defence, losing three on the spin before their Champions League victory over CSKA Moscow on match day one. Likewise, spread sellers of Erik Gerets’ side’s win index will remember the Jekyll and Hyde form that saw them lose seven and draw five of their 17 games on the road, but win 16 and draw only one at the Volkswagen Arena en route to their triumph. Buyers of their total goals spread will though be buoyed by the Brazilian striker Grafite bagging a hat-trick over the Muscovites. Furthermore, they were the 2008/9 Bundesliga top scorers and average 2.0 goals-per-game in all competitions so far this time out.

Former Red Devil Cristiano Ronaldo has adapted well to life in Spain. He will be remembered fondly by spread bettors who frequently bought Ronaldo goal minutes when playing in England, and those that continue to take interest in his spread markets will doubtless be pleased by a return of four goals in his first three appearances for Real Madrid. Next on the fixture list for Galáctico Número Uno and his cohorts is a home game against Marseille. The last time these two sides met at the Bernabeu was in 2003 – in the middle of Florentino Pérez’s first transfer-record-smashing presidency – when an expensively assembled Los Blancos side, featuring the likes of Figo, Zidane and Beckham ran out 4-2 winners, thanks in part to a brace from a man named Ronaldo. Buyers of their goal index spread will be hoping for a similar scoreline and other spread punters looking at the individual player market will want the Portuguese to emulate his Brazilian namesake.

Like United and Madrid, Liverpool have also contested two European finals since the turn of the 21st Century and buyers of either English side’s outright Champions League spread will be hoping the run of Premier League teams appearing in the final – which dates back to the Anfield club’s 2005 triumph over AC Milan – can continue. If spread punters remember the Reds’ last gasp heroics that season it might well be so because they backed them in a similar market to Sporting Index’s Fat Lady special spread market which is offered for this game. Here events after the 80th minute are rewarded: corner = 3pts, goal = 15, yellow card = 5, red = 15. Late goals during the 2005 campaign in matches against Leverkusen and Olympiakos would have returned handsomely. Liverpool go up against another Italian side on match day two in the shape of Fiorentina. Spread buyers of Liverpool’s total goal minute supremacy will know that the Merseysiders netted 50 times over the course of their last two Champions League seasons at an average of nearly 2.3 a game. But they’ll have no doubt seen – as will sellers of the first match goal – that the Viola don’t concede many in their own back yard. Two one-nil wins opened this season and they had the second-best home defensive record in Serie A last term.