The Football Blog

The Champions League is back, and we can't ruddy wait...

It might have a misleading name - after all, it's not just champions that play in it is it - but the ties for the first knockout stage of the Champions League are corkers. Obviously the pick is at the San Siro, where two uber-egos collide in a clash that could well result in the Earth being knocked off it axis. True story. Betting guru Patrick Power is offering everyone their money back on first goalscorer, correct score and scorecast bets if the Greasy One scores the last goal. We should probably clarify that we mean Cristiano Ronaldo, not Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

There's also FA Cup replays going on and a couple of ties in the Football League so have a look at our evening's £1 accie, as well as a first goalscorer bet and a contradictory flutter on a goalless draw for the game in Milan. If Paddy had a book on "Ibrahimovic to flatter to devieve in the big games once again", we'd stick a ton on it.

Tuesday's Best Bets

We're going away from home for Tuesday's Accie...

Plenty of football action this evening, and we're showing our true cojones by plumping for four away wins in our accie, taking in some French Ligue 1 action along the way. The pick of our continental fixtures has to be the burly sides of Nancy and Nice, who play each other in one of the more masculine-sounding fixtures around in world football.

Then there's the crunch 6th versus 7th tie in the Blue Square Premier, Kidderminster v Cambridge, and the all-important Johnstone's Paint Trophy semi-final. Then there's the ever-entertaining Lee Trundle for first scorer, who'll take the reigns at Leeds in the absence of Jermaine Beckford. Sod the return of the Champions League next week, midweek football doesn't get better than this...

It was nice while it lasted...

The man we all thought was going to be the latest Special One has turned out to be a bit of a let down, and Roman Abramovich has wielded the axe. As ever it's not taken the bookies long to list the bosses in line to replace the big Brazilian at Stamford Bridge. Our tip? We fancy Guus Hiddink to make his long-awaited Premier League debut*...

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