UEFA CUP BETTING
Marseille beat Spartak Moscow 3-0 last night in their UEFA Cup last 32
first leg match to give us a winner and though my saver bet on Niang lost
he did score albeit the last goal not the first!
Tonight I am sticking with the UEFA Cup and the match between Rosenborg
and Fiorentina. This is another tie between one side whose season has yet
to start and another whose is in full swing.
Rosenborg will not start their league campaign till the end of March and
obviously will be lacking in competitive match fitness, they qualified for
the Uefa Cup by finishing 3rd in their Champions League Group which
contained Schalke, Chelsea and Valencia, the interesting fact however is
that there place in the Champions League was as a result of winning the
2006 Norwegian title.
The season just gone saw Rosenborg finish a disappointing 5th 13 points
behind champions Brann, though they did have an impressive home record of
won 9 drawn 3 lost 1 scored 34 conceded 13 and in their Champions league
group games they did manage to beat Valencia both home and away and earn a
point at Chelsea.
However my concern is the fact that they have not been playing
competitively for some time now.
Fiorentina on the other hand are well into their season, they currently
sit 4th in Serie A and though 6 points behind 3rd placed Juventus are
challenging for a Champions League place next season. Their away form in
the league has been better than their home form with 5 wins 5 draws 1
defeat 14 goals scored and 8 conceded. The only away defeat they have
suffered in the league this season was a 2-0 defeat at Palermo which is
definitely not one of the easiest places to come away from with any
points.
They have yet to lose home or away in the UEFA Cup so far though they did
need penalties to beat Groningen in the first round. In the group stage
they drew away at Villareal and AEK Athens and beat Elfsborg and Mlada
Boleslav at home in one of the tougher groups.
They have only lost 1 of their last 8 league matches a 1-0 defeat to AC
Milan though Lazio did beat them home and away in the Coppa Italia.
They are currently 2nd in the 6 game form league behind runaway leaders
Inter with 4 wins 1 draw and 1 defeat so will be a tough nut to crack
tonight and at best price 6/5 with Ladbrokes and Skybet look to be a good
value bet tonight.
Fiorentina have quality in all departments from goalkeeper Frey, defenders
Ujfalusi and Kroldrup, midfielders Montolivio and Jorgensen and forwards
Vieri and Mutu and they showed show their class tonight.
Mutu in particular has shown his undoubted talent to full effect this
season and is the clubs top scorer with 13 goals and if picked to play
tonight could be worth a small investment at 3/1 with Partybet in the
first goalscorer market. Mutu missed the weekend game against Atalanta
through injury but should be fit for tonight’s match.
Other team news from both camps is that the Italians will be without
midfielder Fabio Liverani who has been struggling with an ankle injury for
the past two weeks.
Rosenborg on the other hand should have a full squad to choose from.
I also cannot see too many goals in this game a Fiorentina have drawn all
their away games in the UEFA Cup 1-1 so far so obviously play it tight and
as I said before Rosenborg may find it hard to fall straight back into
competitive football after nearly 3 months so I will be taking 0.75 with
Expekt on under 2.5 goals.
So a Fiorentina win at 6/5 and smaller stakes on under 2.5 goals and Mutu
(if selected) first goals scorer at 3/1 hopefully will bag me a nice hat
trick!
Good luck as ever,
Silverfox.
