Football Accumulator Tips: Jamie’s 4/1 Weekend Cross-European Treble

No luck last week but the 3-3-3 column is still in profit for the season, so on Jamie Pacheco goes. 

This week's selections include a Serie A side to win, a Portuguese one to be up at the break and win along with a Ligue 1 clash having plenty of cards, so let's see if he can pull it off as Jamie takes us through his Football Accumulator Tips for this weekend with his Cross-European treble...

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: +0.84pts  

Atalanta are really trying our patience at the moment, picking the worst possible times to go all 0-0 on us. So last week’s effort never really got off the ground, as a result. This is an important week for us because a failure to secure a win here means we’re back in the red and we don’t like red, we like black. But it’s a big price this week and if it does come good, we’ll be well up for the season.  

Lille v Montpellier  

Saturday March 8 18:00  

Selection: Back Over 42.5 bookings points @ 8/13       

It’s been a decent season so far for Lille in Ligue 1, who currently sit in fifth on 41 points and but who are certainly still within reach of a third-place finish and a chance to play Champions League next year, given the side currently in that position, Nice, are just five points better off; and there’s plenty of football still to be played.  

Other teams have played better football than them this term, but few can compete with them when it comes to the levels of indiscipline in the games they’re involved in.  Five of their last six away games have seen the 45 (bookings) point barrier broken which is somewhat unsurprising given four of their last six away matches have had a red card in them. Sadly, they’re not away this week and their home stats aren’t quite as impressive but that’s where opponents Montpellier can lend a helping hand.  

The latter have a 55% strike rate away and a 61.5% strike rate at home for matches with 45 points or more in them. A bit like two naughty kids egging each other on to cause mischief, a clash between these two should see us get five yellows, though two yellows and a red would do us fine, as well.  

Benfica vs Nacional da Madeira  

Saturday March 8  

Selection: Back Benfica/Benfica in the half time/full time market @ 8/13  

If Benfica had hypothetically played that midweek match against Barcelona 100 times from the point the visitors had a man sent off in the first half, they would probably have won it 60 times, drawn 25 of them and lost on 15 occasions.  

But football isn’t played hypothetically and their huge wastefulness in front of goals, alongside a brilliant performance from Barca keeper Tomasz Szczęsny resulted in a 1-0 win for the Blaugrana thanks to a late Raphinha goal. They’ll be kicking themselves that they didn’t take at least a 2-0 lead into the second leg but there’s no time in this game to be licking their wounds.  

So back to focusing on the league before they head to Barcelona to try and create what would be a huge upset even just by forcing extra-time.  

And they’re unlikely to find much trouble in the shape of Nacional. They’re in a respectable 12th place but Benfica’s head-to-head record against them is predictably strong, beating them 31 times out of 41 and scoring 91 goals against them, conceding just 27.  

There may be some changes to Benfica’s side but new January signings means they can make them without being significantly weaker. Crucially, their last 8 home matches has seen them score 13 first-half goals so they’re fast starters at the Estadio da Luz. The Eagles leading at half time and winning at full time is a pretty fair 8/13.   

Empoli vs Roma  

Sunday March 9 17:00  

Selection: Back Roma to win @ 1/1

Claudio Ranieri is one of the good guys in football, a lovely man who is adored by his players wherever he goes and who is as competitive and passionate as anyone in the game, but still never forgets just that: it’s only a game.  

His experience, knowledge and persona have certainly done wonders for Roma, his current team, who he joined for a third spell in November.  

He took a while to get going but they’re on an excellent run of form at the moment. They knocked Porto out of the Europa League and on Thursday took a 2-1 lead into the second leg against Bilbao. That win made it six out of their last seven where they ended on the winning side, the only anomaly being a perfectly respectable 1-1 draw in Porto and this after having a man sent off.   

It's also four wins in a row in Serie A so they should be too good for Empoli, struggling down in 18th. I suppose it’s possible that Ranieri rests a couple of players with that second leg in mind, but they’ve got a decent squad these days and that’s factored into the price anyway. Let’s see if good old Claudio can give us a hand here.  

James’ Fun Fact  

In his 39-year managerial career, Ranieri has managed 23 different professional teams, including 8 different Serie A sides (some more than once), a national side (Greece) and both Valencia and Atletico Madrid in Spain. Oh and…he also won the Premier League with Leicester.