Saturday Football Tips: Our Saturday Cross-European Treble

The 3-3-3 column has enjoyed a very good spell through January but saw 11 correct selections in a row come to an end last weekend. It is time to start a new streak.

Jamie is back with the latest edition of his 3-3-3 column and all the selections this week take place on Saturday with legs from Italy, France and Portugal...

Last year, the 3-3-3 column returned a profit of 17 points, which means that if you’d backed every treble recommended over the course of the season for level £10 stakes, you’d be up by £170. That’s one of the better returns you’ll see in the tipping business and speaking of returns, Jamie Pacheco is returning again this year to do try to do it all over again, and maybe even improve on it.

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...

2025-26 season Current P and L: +10.3 pts  

2024-25 season’s P and L: + 16.9     

Right, time for a catch-up. The treble from the week before last ended up winning after Benfica beat Rio Ave 2-0; we just needed over 1.5 goals in the game. So that came in at odds of 3.03/1 to take our 3-3-3 profit up to 19.93 for the season.  

But that’s not even half the story. In last week’s 3-3-3 column we had the first two come in, only for us to fall one goal short when Porto beat Guimaraes 1-0; we needed them to win but with at least 2 goals in the game. And even then it’s not the full story because Samu (ironically the man I said we should look out for) missed a first-half penalty. So back we went to a profit of ‘just’ 18.93.  

Last thing I’ll say about that run of three winning columns and last week’s near-miss was that we had 11 winning selections in a row. Whatever happens from here we’ll end in profit at the end of the season but we’re aiming for much better than that. 

• Fiorentina v Cagliari  
• Saturday 24th January 14:00 
• Back Over 2.5 Goals @ Evens   

We’re reverting to the strategy of going for a risky selection first up, safe in the knowledge that we could fall at the first hurdle. But then again, we can be in a decent position if we clear it.  

And it’s that we get ‘overs’ in this game. The stats are quite kind to us.  

Fiorentina have a 60% strike rate for over 2.5 goals at home this campaign and are up against a side in Cagliari where their away matches go ‘overs’ 54.5% of the time. Pretty raw stats I know and even though this column isn’t really about betting value, you’d still have to say that evens is a good price in light of those numbers.  

For the record, this fixture has had at least three goals in it in two of the last three. I think this is going to be pretty tight but I’m happy with the selection.  

• Le Havre v Monaco 
• Saturday 24th January 18:00 
• Back both teams to score @ 4/7  

Another match with decent stats in our favour at a pretty decent price? Sure, why not?  

Le Havre’s home games have seen goals at both ends in 67% of them, including last time out when they beat Angers 2-1.  

Monaco aren’t big fans of clean sheets for either team, too. 62.5% of them have gone that way (BTTS) in their away matches so far, and a 70% strike rate at home proves they play out some pretty open games.  

Similar to our first selection, two out of the last three in this fixture were winners on BTTS so more stats to suggest we might be onto something, albeit at a shorter price; but I’m happy with this one, too   

• Arouca v Sporting Lisbon 
• Saturday 24th January 18:00  
• Back Sporting to win and over 1.5 goals @ 2/5  

Second meets 13th and in a league not exactly rich in quality outside the Top 4, that’s quite a gulf in…quality.  

Sporting have won 14 out of their 18 matches so far this season. They’re in pretty strong form at the moment with five wins from six and when you consider that the last of those was a 2-1 win over PSG in midweek - we had Sporting or draw in my preview of the game - then we can see they haven’t exactly been up against the weaker teams on the continent. 

Sporting won 3-0 and 3-0 in their last two visits here, so assuming they do win, I don’t think it’s just going to be 1-0.  

Jamie’s Fun Fact  

Sporting have a striker called Luis Suarez. In 2025, he netted four goals in a World Cup qualifier against Venezuela, a rare achievement that made him just the second player ever to score four in a single CONMEBOL qualifying match. The only other player to accomplish this was his namesake, Uruguay’s Luis Suárez, who hit four against Chile in 2011 — making the parallel even more striking.

Click here for the latest Football Odds and Football Accumulator Coupons

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...