UEFA Champions League betting previews : AS Monaco- Bayer Leverkusen/ Sevilla- Olympique Lyonnais
We sided with the hosts for their opening group game at Wembley against Tottenham ........Monaco are top of Ligue 1 and were certainly no less impressive than Spurs in a 4-1 away win at Lille on Saturday, they played with great pace and width, so Wembley should suit, they will be stronger today with a couple of regulars returning and arrive full of confidence. ASM upgraded in the summer and feel they are very different from the side who lost 4-1 at White Hart Lane last December in the Europa League. That was a half hearted performance from the visitors who were already on their way out of a competition they were not committed to and they were at the time still playing catch up in Ligue 1 for a Champions League place, their target for the season. Already competition battle hardened through playoff games with Villarreal where they won both legs, I favour them to take a point this evening in what could be a very entertaining contest.
There is no Cristiano Ronaldo , Gareth Bale, Pepe or Toni Kroos in the Real squad (see below) , but Real have wins and goals in their absence in pre season with victories over Bayern Munich and Chelsea and three goals inside the opening 38 minutes in the latter and there are plenty of players looking to impress and showcase their talents in the absence of the two big offensive stars. Sevilla are much changed since winning the Europa League , head coach Unai Emery has moved on to PSG and been replaced by Copa America winner Jorge Sampaoli , top scorer Kévin Gameiro has joined Atletico Madrid , Éver Banega has moved to Inter and Grzegorz Krychowiak has joined Emery in Paris. That is a lot of talent to lose, but Sevilla have been here before and are usually in a rebuilding process of some sort. They have spent some 60€m on new players and got a couple more on loan from Atletico as part of the Gameiro deal, one of whom, Luciano Vietto looked very lively in a friendly with Granada last week, that was Sevilla's sixth win in six warm up games and they looked good, really pressing hard and from the front, looking well ahead in terms of preparation and they played their first friendly, eleven days before Real. Sampaoli says his team needs time and that is true of course, but they look set to do themselves justice and give Real a very close game, the Argentine coach spoke about wanting to win this game, but about about it having to be in "the right way" and not at any cost and regardless of who is on the pitch, it is easy to see this game getting very stretched at times and the new head coach added: 'I want my team to focus more on the goal in front of them than the one behind them "
When Sevilla were pressing hard from the front against Granada they did get caught out once or twice and they will be vulnerable on the break. So it is easy to see goals, but Real are weakened today, their 20 man squad contains three keepers and four of the goals in warm up came from full backs, several of the 17 outfield players are said to be well short of up to 90 minutes currently and whilst we seem sure to see goals, I favour Sevilla with a new coach to impress and he the media, I feel they are a week or so ahead of Real and that the best value is with the "underdog".
They came away from that with a 0-0 draw and have certainly proved that they can shut up shop when they have to, with clean sheets at Juventus and Villarreal , two games inside four days in build up to this did them few favours and it was clear they targetted the first, the home derby with Betis and made the weekend trip to Bilbao with this fixture firmly in mind. Sevilla home and away are two very different animals and they are a match for anyone here and three points today, especially with a healthy margin of victory, is going to leave them in a very strong position in Group H with back to back games against Dinamo Zagreb up next.
1.5 units Sevilla -1 ball 2.33 asian line/Sportmarket.
Good Luck.
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