Lyon To Dine Out On Betis

Lyon is the best bet on a busy European football program at odds of 2.30 with Coral to beat Betis in UEFA Europa League action in France’s culinary capital.

Betis in unbeaten in the UEFA Europa League but it is stuck at the foot of the Spanish La Liga ladder for a reason and it travels to Lyon having been thumped 0-4 in the Sevilla Derby by Sevilla. Betis has conceded at least three goals in four of its last five away games and, sooner or later, its European form is going to mirror its domestic form.

Lyon, which needs to win its fifth UEFA Europa League Group I match to remain in control of its own destiny, has strung together a four-game unbeaten run and that does not include the 0-0 draw that it earned in Spain. Lyon restricted Betis to just four shots on target and, although the Seville-based side struck the woodwork with one of them, the view of most impartial observers was that a draw was a fair result.

Having expected to see Lyon quoted at odds of around 2.10, the odds of 2.30 available from a couple of bookmakers mean that Remi Garde’s team is the pick of the midweek coupon.

Staying in the UEFA Europa League, Ludogorets is over the odds at 3.60 with BetVictor to defeat PSV in Group B. Ludogorets is having a great season domestically and internationally, leading the Bulgarian A PFG by six points after 18 rounds and topping the UEFA Europa League Group B ladder. Having beaten PSV 2-0 in the Netherlands, a home point versus the Dutch side would be sufficient for Ludogorets to qualify. Ludogorets is undefeated in nine matches across all competitions and included in that streak is seven victories. PSV is not pulling up any trees either at home or abroad, sitting eighth in the Dutch Eredivisie. PSV has won only one of its last eight games across all competitions and its last nine road matches around the world have produced five losses, three draws and one win.

Manchester United manager David Moyes has a habit of coming up with defensive strategies for big games so we are opposing the Red Devils in their UEFA Champions League Group A match against Leverkusen in Germany. Manchester United won the reverse fixture 4-2 at Old Trafford because it went for it from the first whistle but Moyes has been conservative in massive matches for years and years so one cannot expect this leopard to change his spots after all that time.

Leveruksen has a really good home record. Since the middle of April 2013, Leverkusen has won 11 and drawn one of its dozen competitive home games, with its only blemish being its 1-1 draw versus Bayern Munchen. Manchester United is not in Bayern Munchen’s class – the English Premier League does not lie nearly one-third of the way through the competition and the Red Devils are sixth position because they deserve to be there – and the way in which bookmakers have framed their markets indicates that they think that Leverkusen is inferior to its opponent. That does make sense so backing Leverkusen at odds of 2.50 with BetVictor appeals a lot.

Finally, one should expect a UEFA Champions League Group E match of goals when Basel entertains Chelsea. Basel, which stunned Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to come away with a 2-1 success, knows only one way to play and that should mean plenty of goalmouth action at both ends of the pitch as it goes in search of a victory that could keep alive its chance of progressing further in UEFA’s top club tournament.

BetVictor is offering odds of 2.00 that Basel and Chelsea combine for more than two and a half goals. Since losing 1-2 to Chelsea in the UEFA Europa League last season, Basel has scored at least one goal in 13 of its 15 home games across all competitions so the Swiss Super League leader is likely to make a contribution to the total even though it is a big outsider to win the match and complete the Chelsea double.