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Today’s secondary featured game is the UEFA Champions League game in Germany between Bayern Munich and Manchester City.

So, Bayern – they’ve started this season really well. French winger Franck Ribery thinks it’s the best Bayern he’s ever seen. I wonder if he thought that when he asked to join Real Madrid? Anyway, I will concede that Bayern are a massive improvement on the joke that they were a few years ago and in my view, they’re just two/three players away from being a genuine contender in this competition. They’ve got two of the best wingers in the world in Robben and Ribery. In fact, if you throw Schweinsteiger, Muller etc. into the mix then you do have a quite excellent midfield. Defensively, they’re good at going forward (a contradiction, I know!) but not so good at keeping sides out, especially from a positional perspective. They’ve got one of the best goalkeepers in the world for my money but Bayern’s problem has been a striker and has been for some time. They lack a target man, basically, and it’s in tough games like this where it tends to show. Gomez is just an average striker at the best of times – he squanders far too many chances at every level he plays at. Olic is a battler, not a target man. Some call Muller a striker; I don’t as he’s more of a playmaker that moves into channels, in my view. Although Bayern’s midfield can tear any Bundesliga side apart (and a lot of European clubs too) I just feel that their Achilles heel will rear its ugly head again tonight.

A lot of people are raving about City and they’ve been excellent in the Premier League so far this season so I can understand it, even if I don’t wholly agree with it. I think City have some superb players in the likes of Silva and Aguero and they were definitely the kind of players that City needed to leave the doldrums of being an average team. However, their defence needs a lot of work and they do need a couple more attacking players to give the squad that depth that they’ll desperately need come January/February. However, they’re playing well for the present time at least and I’m happy to give them a chance here as a result because their pace on counter-attacks really should trouble a dubious Bayern defence. If City bottle it on the big stage here then they’re in for a rough ride but they’ve got an Italian manager; they’re going to play defensively here. Bayern are notorious for their tenacity so City need to match that. If they don’t go 4-5-1 then it could prove to be disastrous but we’ll have to see the line-ups. If City block Bayern’s excellent midfield then a 0-0 or 1-1 here between two fairly well-matched sides is not an unrealistic expectation.

Bayern have bags of European experience and as something of an old romantic, I’d obviously prefer Bayern to win this one and demonstrate that the Champions League can’t just be “bought” nowadays. Bayern have a lot of tradition in this competition and I’d hate to see that ruined. However, there’s no point being stupid or nostalgic in this game as football is a very different game nowadays and City are a hard side to beat so Bayern are going to have to work hard without that much-needed target man. For me, this game could swing either way but Bayern without a target man being priced at around 9/10 to win the game is way too short, in my view. Therefore, laying the hosts at evens looks a decent punt tonight.

Verdict: Lay Bayern Munich at evens.

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Tuesday’s Picks

Accumulator fodder:

Rangers, Trans Narva, Levadia Tallinn, Nomme Kalju, SL Benfica, Manchester United.

Recommended bets:

No multiples appeal to me today – sorry guys!

As ever, if there are any explanations required then please feel free to post a comment! For the remainder of my thoughts on today’s games, see below, although I feel compelled to write that the below are not necessarily my tips but merely my thoughts to prevent endless questions about my thoughts on certain games!

UEFA Champions League:

CSKA Moscow vs Internazionale (6) 1-1
Bayern Munich vs Manchester City (5) 1-1
SSC Napoli vs Villarreal CF (4) 1-2
Trabzonspor vs LOSC Lille (6) 1-1
Manchester United vs Basel (9) 2-0
Otelul Galati vs SL Benfica (8) 0-2
Olympique Lyonnais vs Dinamo Zagreb (5) 0-0
Real Madrid vs AFC Ajax Amsterdam (7) over 2.5 goals, both sides to score

Asian Champions League:

Jeonbuk Motors vs Cerezo Osaka (6) 2-1, at least one red card in this game
FC Seoul vs Al Ittihad (6) 1-0

English Championship:

Derby County vs Barnsley (4)
Portsmouth vs Peterborough United (6)
Brighton & Hove Albion vs Crystal Palace (7)
Watford vs Millwall (6)
West Ham United vs Ipswich Town (7)
Coventry City vs Blackpool (5)
Burnley vs Nottingham Forest (6)
Doncaster Rovers vs Hull City (5)
Bristol City vs Reading (6)

Estonian Meistriliiga:

Ajax Lasnamae vs Trans Narva (10) -1.5 handicap
Kuressaare vs Flora Paide (5) 1-0
Sillamae Kalev vs Flora Tallinn (7) 0-2
Maag Tammeka Tartu vs Nomme Kalju (8) over 2.5 goals
Levadia Tallinn vs Viljandi (8) 2-0

Scottish Premier League:

Rangers vs Kilmarnock (8) 2-0

Singaporean S-League:

Armed Forces vs Tampines Rovers (5) 1-1

Slovenian Prva Liga:

Koper vs Celje (6) 2-1

Welsh Premier League:

Afan Lido vs Aberystwyth Town (5) 1-0

Enjoy your free betting tips!