Football Accumulator Tips: 3-3-3 Column goes for back-to-back winners

Last week Jamie Pacheco secured the second winning treble of the season to get the column back in profit for the campaign but isn't resting on his laurels. In fact, this week's treble comes to odds of almost 5/1, so back-to-back wins will really have us in clover.   

This week we travel to Monza, Faro and Auxerre with two corners bets and a goals one as he takes us through his 3-3-3 Column and his Football Accumulator Tips for this weekend...

Welcome to the 3-3-3 betting column. Why is it called that? Glad you asked.  It’s not a formation to play when you’ve had a man sent off but rather: 

• 3 - The number of different selections making up the acca. 
• 3 - The number of different (non-English) European Leagues the selections are taken from every week. 
• 3 - The minimum odds (3/1) or 4.0 if you prefer, that the acca will come to it every week. 

And it really is as simple as that. The selections can be from any betting markets, as long as they meet the criteria set out above.  And to round things off, every week I’ll leave you with a cool (or at least I think so) bit of trivia involving one of the teams featured in the acca. Simples... 

Current P and L: +1.52pts  

We’re back in business. Last week my parting words in this section were “And for good measure, I’ve got a good feeling about this week’s acca.”  So, it was probably a good thing that it did win or else I’d be left looking pretty silly. 

In the end it was all pretty comfortable. We needed 10 or more corners in Parma v Empoli and got 12, we needed three goals in Lyon v Auxerre and got four and finally we required three Benfica goals, and they scored five.  So, a win with something to spare in all three selections and we’re back in profit for the season. Shows the value of a bit of patience.  

By the way, I excitedly told my mate of “If at first you don’t succeed…pack it in and go do something else.” fame (see last week’s column) that it had won this week and his enigmatic response was: “You should have quit while you were behind.” 

Ok…  

Farense v Benfica   

Saturday, November 2 18:00  

Selection: Under 10.5 corners @ 1/1

Benfica must be thinking that Christmas has come early. They’ve been well and truly up against it in the Superliga ever since Week 1 when they lost and Sporting won and it hasn’t got an easier since, with Sporting boasting an 100% record and Benfica currently eight points behind them. And this after the appointment of Bruno Lage, who boasts an 100% record in the Superliga himself.  

Then something happened. Manchester United sacked Erik ten Haag and decided Sporting boss Ruben Amorim was the man for the job, which is a pretty good assumption to make given his track record. Assuming he leaves for Old Trafford, and it looks like it’s just a matter of time before he does, Benfica may just find a way back into the title race.  

But why talk about title races when we talk about corner counts? Benfica travel to Farense this weekend with a record of all of their three away matches to date having less than 10.5 corners. Farense fans, ever eager for watching corners being taken, have been disappointed because just one of their four home games have produced over 10.5 corners.  

This would have just about been a winner last season when there were 10 and not 11, and all in all, the under 10.5 corners price looks big at evens.  

Monza v Milan   

Saturday, November 2 19:45  

Selection: Milan to get the most corners @ 4/9  

Am I the only person who found it a bit odd that back in the 90s Milan had three superstar Dutch players (Van Basten, Rijkaard and Gullit) while across the city, Inter had three German ones (Brehme, Klinsmann and Matthaus)?  

I mean, it’s not like they each bought all three of them as a package from the same club. I’ll pay a virtual pint to whoever can tell me which of those six was the only one to score a goal in a World Cup final, by the way.   

Well, these days AC Milan have players from no fewer than 19 different countries including the likes of Portugal, Mexico, USA, Algeria and Belgium. They even have three English ones in Tammy Abraham, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fikayo Tomori.  

If this blend of nationalities hasn’t been enough to get them towards the top of the table (they’re eighth) it’s done wonders in terms of them getting more corners than their opponents over the weeks.  

In nine matches in total, they’ve won the corners battle on seven occasions, including having seven to Fiorentina’s zero a few weeks ago.  

Monza have won just two out of five at home so those are strong stats in favour of Milan getting more. Particularly given they’re odds-on favourites to win the match so should have plenty more of the ball. Let’s hope so.  

Auxerre v Rennes  

Sunday, November 3 16:00  

Selection: Over 2.5 goals @ 8/11  

Auxerre featured in our column last week and the selection won, as we know, after their match against Lyon produced over 2.5 goals.  

Auxerre have won Ligue 1 just once in their history, doing so back in the 1995-6 season, so are hardly giants of French football.  

Notable players from yesteryear have included the extremely violent Philippe Mexes, the extremely brilliant Enzo Scifo, one-time Arsenal man Bacary Sagna, Senegalese striker of the creative haircuts Djibril Cisse and…Eric Cantona.  

Speaking of Cantona, for what it’s worth I really like the first part of that advert for a (to be left unnamed) well-known betting company where the guy gives this passionate speech about research and understanding all the elements of the game (”know the height of the centre-backs…”) before being able to predict over nine corners in the game; good lad, I like corners bets as well.  

But I certainly don’t like Eric’s involvement in it. In a disparaging tone he mocks the guy’s rationale, which sounded pretty good to me, and hands him the restaurant bill to pay.  

Eric comes across as unpleasant, somewhat rude and let’s face it, a bit of a cheapskate.  

Quite why anyone felt those were good qualities to give him that would make you likely to open an account at that betting company, is beyond me. You certainly wouldn’t find Betfred making adverts like that one. 

But if Betfred don’t make mistakes like that with their adverts, they may just have made one with their pricing of over 2.5 goals in this match, which they make an 8/11 shot.  

Now, Auxerre have played nine games this season in Ligue 1 and eight of them have gone over 2.5 goals, including of course that 2-2 last week that served us so well.  This week’s opponents Rennes have seen six of their nine matches pass the 2.5 goal barrier and for good measure, going back to the end of last season, all of Rennes’ last seven matches on the road have gone ‘overs.   

So, unlike that man Eric, that price looks pretty generous to me.  

James’ Fun Fact  

The answer to the quiz question above is of course, Andreas Brehme. He scored an 85th minute penalty in the final against Argentina to hand West Germany the World Cup. But what’s sometimes forgotten is that he also scored his side’s goal against England in the semi-finals, albeit benefiting from a wicked deflection from a free-kick. Either way, not bad going…for a left-back.