Champions League: Wednesday's best tips
Betting Insider gives you the best same game multi-bets from the two stand-out games on Wednesday night: Real Madrid v Roma and Valencia v Juventus...
Dzeko amongst the goals, and plenty of them
Real Madrid v Roma Wednesday September 19 20:00 Live on BT Sports
This could be the most intriguing game of Wednesday night. Firstly, because it will be a good chance to see this revamped Real Madrid side in action post-Ronaldo and judge whether they're in contention yet again and if so: what's the plan to make up for the rather large hole he's left?
But secondly, because it could be a really entertaining game. And one full of goals. Or at least more than 3.5 of them. That's happened in three of Real's games so far this season and two of Roma's four, including that 2-2 draw at the weekend at home to Chievo.
It was also four from six games with at least four goals in Real's group games last season and despite the departure of 'you know who' there are plenty of other players left who are more than capable of scoring. The likes of Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Marcos Ascensio may have had to play second fiddle to the Portuguese skipper for a few years but the first two already have eight goals between them this season and Ascensio may just open his account for the season right here. Over 3.5 goals at 21/20 is the first part of the bet.
Edin Dzeko is a proper old-school finisher. Not too fussed about making runs into channels or being involved with build-up play, he's there to score and happy to leave the rest to the others. The result is that the season before last he notched 46 goals in all competitions. That tally went down to 26 last season but he certainly enjoyed himself in this competition. He scored eight goals in total and as Opta tell us, in five matches in a row. Considering the opponents were Liverpool (twice), Barcelona (twice) and Shakhtar, he's hardly a flat-track bully. He's 13/8 to score here and that's too good to resist.
A Ronaldo goal may not be enough for Juve
Valencia v Juventus Wednesday September 19 20:00 Live on BT Sport Extra
I probably won't be winning many prizes for originality here but it's just impossible to dismiss the chances of Cristiano Ronaldo. It's not a case of blindly backing him because of who he is but rather because the price is good in terms of the stats. It's well-known that his 120 goals in the competition is a record. But did you know just how consistent he's been over the past few seasons? These are his goals per season, most recent first: 15, 12, 16, 10, 17, 12, 10, 6 going back to 2010/11. It makes for ridiculous reading and now that he's got the monkey off his back by scoring at the fourth time of asking- he got two for good measure - at home to Sassuolo, the smart money is on him carrying on doing what he does best. He's evens to get a goal here and it's not often that you see him at that sort of price.
But Juve may not have thigs all their own way here. They've sort of dragged themselves to wins in Serie A so far rather than winning games convincingly and they certainly don't like playing Spanish opponents in Europe. Five of their last six defeats in this competition came against Spanish sides and the Bianconeri have won just one of their last six away in Spain.
For good measure, Valencia have enjoyed themselves when Italian teams come to town. They've lost just one of their last seven in European competition against Italian sides. All stats courtesy of Opta.
It hasn't admittedly been the best possible start for Los Che so far with three draws and a loss. But a 1-1 draw at home to Atletico Madrid shows they can hold their own against the very best on home soil and they will have been preparing for this game for a while. All that makes you think the draw is the way to go here at 27/10 but I'm going to be a little more cautious because I'd rather have that home win on my side as well, given those historical trends. So Valencia on the double chance market it is.
RECOMMENDED BETS
Back over 3.5 goals (21/20) + Edin Dzeko to score (13/8) @ 4.49 Back Cristiano Ronaldo to score (evens) + Valencia on the Double Chance market (10/11) @ 3.82