Football Accumulator Tips: The 3-3-3 Column – We just need a Lille bit of luck

No joy last week but the 3-3-3 column marches on as Jamie Pacheco looks for that first win on the board. Success here and we’ll be up. 

This week’s acca, at a bigger price than usual at 5.19/1, features a prolific Swedish Lisbon-based striker, an Italian team full of Premier League outcasts and a Lille v PSG match unlikely to lead to any clean sheet bonuses. Or so we hope. Check out our Cross-European Football Accumulator Tips for this weekend...

*You can check out all of our Football Odds over at betfred.com

Inter vs Atalanta – Friday, August 30 19:45  

Selection: Over 2.5 Goals @ 4/6

If you don’t make it in the Premier League, there’s always Atalanta for you.   

Here’s a list of players who had a hard time of it in England before rebuilding their careers at Atalanta, where they’re playing this season: Davide Zappacosta (ex-Chelsea), Gianluca Scamacca (West Ham), Saed Kolisanac (Arsenal), Ademola Lookman (Everton, Fulham, Leicester) and Juan Cuadrado (Chelsea).

Former Everton man Ben Godfrey is the odd one out as someone who did have a solid Premier League career before joining Atalanta, not to be confused with the state capital of Georgia, Atlanta.  

Maybe all those former Premier League players enjoy Atalanta because of the number of goals their matches tend to have. Well, maybe not the defenders so much.  

68% of Atalanta home matches last season had over 2.5 goals, as did 63% of their away matches.  

Their opponents this week, Inter, weren’t quite as impressive on this metric but it was still 58% of their away matches and 52% of their home matches that went this way last season.  

Atalanta are 2/2 and Inter 1/2 for over 2.5 goals matches in Serie A so far, while all of the last four games between them have had at least three goals as well.   

Sporting vs Porto – Saturday, August 31 20:30  

Selection: Viktor Gyokeres to score anytime @ 13/10

Premier League (not to mention Fantasy League) managers know the value of a striker who can consistently put the ball in the back of the net.  

You’d think that’s a pretty basic part of the job description (JD) for strikers, but it seems that Everton striker (if you can call him that) Neal Maupay, who has scored precisely one goal in 33 appearances for Everton across all competitions, didn’t bother reading the JD.   

Everton boss Sean Dyche is unlikely to win the PL Manager of the Year award this season but he may well win one for most Diplomatic Manager of the Year after he very diplomatically said. “He's (Maupay) had a real tough run at Everton Football Club.” And then some.  

It’s a bid odd that Premier League clubs are prepared to pay 100 million quid for ‘anchor midfielders’ like Moises Caicedo. By the way, I still call him an ‘anchor midfielder’ rather than a Number 6 because quite simply, he doesn’t wear Number 6.  

Yet they’re not prepared to offer say 60 million for a man who last season scored 37 goals in 48 appearances for club and country. That man is Sporting’s Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres, who last season scored three goals in two league matches against this weekend’s opponents Porto.  

Proof this man is no ‘one-season wonder’ is that in three matches this season he’s already scored six goals. Maupay normally takes a decade to score that many. In superb form and against a side he loves playing against, I’ll take the 7/5 he gets one here.  

Lille vs PSG – Sunday, September 1 19:45  

Selection: Both Teams to Score @ 8/13  

Last week Roma were proof that doing something (winning) 11 times out of 12 doesn’t mean it’s about to become 12 out of 13. We had them to beat Empoli based on that stat, but they didn’t.  At least Roma had the decency to actually lose the match rather than just drawing it.  

But we’ll keep faith in impressive long-term trends here. The last six matches between an ever-competitive Lille and an ever-minted PSG have seen both teams score: 3-1, 1-1, 4-3, 7-1, 5-1 and 2-1.  

In five matches so far this season at the time of writing, (including three Champions League qualifiers) Lille have scored exactly two goals on four occasions and one in the other. So they’ve got goals in them.  

PSG have scored at least once in 16 out of their last 18 matches, the odd ones out being back-to-back 1-0 defeats in the Champions League against finalists Dortmund last season.  

BTTS looks a solid selection here at 8/13. We just need a Lille bit of luck.  

*You can create your own Acca or follow James' selections over on our Football Accumulator Coupon page on betfred.com

James’ Fun Fact:  

Atalanta manager Gian Piero Gasperini will be in charge of Atalanta for the 390th time on Sunday, having first joined them in June 2016. During his time there Atalanta have scored 751 goals, an average of 1.93 goals a game.   

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket and European Football for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Football Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Football hub page...