Weekend Football Tips: Jamie’s Cross-European Treble

Matches in Italy, Spain and Portugal are on the itinerary for our 3-3-3 column this week as our European Accumulator Tipster picks out three bets across three of Europe's top leagues to put together his weekly treble at 3/1 or longer.

After a couple of gutting losses in the past couple of weeks, he looks to return to winning ways by betting on an Over 2.5, Under 2.5 and a Match Result this weekend...

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: +21.5 pts  

2024-25 season’s P and L: + 16.9     

Frustrating times here at the 3-3-3 column for us.  

Having done all the hard work with identifying a great 11/8 shot which won ( over 2.5 goals in Pisa v Genoa) and a fairly-priced 4/9 one in Porto to win and under 4.5 goals (finished 2-0), all our efforts were undone by PSG’s failure to beat Lyon at 2/9!  

For the record, they didn’t even draw; they actually lost the game 2-1. On the one hand, we can’t have too many complaints because PSG’s goal only came very late in second-half injury time; on the other hand, Goncalo Ramos missed a penalty on 34 minutes (when they were 2-0) down. If he’d scored it, they may well have had the momentum and confidence to turn the game around. But he didn’t, and they didn’t.  

So, a second week in a row of the shortest price among the three selections (by far) is letting us down, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. At least we’ve been picking some good odds-against shots. If only the bankers started being just that.  

So back to 21.5 points, which is still a great effort for the season, but we want at least two more wins before the season is up.  

• Getafe v Barcelona            
• Saturday 25 April, 15:15  
• Back over 2.5 goals @ 4/5  

This is one of those matches where one team’s stats point heavily in one direction and the other team’s stats in a completely different one.  

Let’s go through them.  

Getafe’s stats at home suggest they’re very much an under 2.5 goals team with just 20% of their games this season going that way, including just one in their last six.  

But then again, they don’t play Barcelona every week, do they?  

Barca have a crazy 82% strike rate for ‘overs’ games at home and it’s sky-high on the road too, at 73%, including 9 of their last 12.  

A good omen for our over 2.5 goals bet is that Barca have conceded at least once in four of their last five on the road, whereas Getafe have scored in three of their last four at home, so we should really get at least one Getafe goal, which will be a big help.  

Perhaps the market is factoring in the absence of Barca wunderkind Lamine Yamal, who is now out for the rest of the season with injury. Fine, he’s a big miss, but it’s not like they don’t have a load of good replacements. Besides, a fair few of his goals come from penalties, and Ferran Torres or Robert Lewandowski can take them if they get one.  

Either way, let’s hope the Barca factor here gets us the three goals we need.  

• Estrela v Porto  
• Sunday 26 April, 18:00  
• Porto to win @ 3/10 

With two 4/5 selections in the other matches, we can once again go for a short-priced one here, and I won’t be best pleased if this one lets us down!  

But I’ve chosen it very carefully, even at that short price.  

Porto’s win last weekend, to go with Sporting’s loss to Benfica, will have given them some breathing space at the top of the table. On the one hand, they’ll be feeling good about things; on the other hand, they’re not under that pressure of knowing one slip-up is really going to hurt them, so a more relaxed mindset should help them here.  

It’s a game they really should win. They’re a huge 51 points better off than 15th place Estrela this season, have won seven of their last nine in the league and beat Estrela 3-1 at home earlier on in the season.   

• AC Milan v Juventus  
• Sunday 26 April, 19:45  
• Under 2.5 Goals @ 10/11

One of world football’s most famous clashes takes place on Sunday night and let’s hope it’s boring as hell, because we want less than three goals in it.  

And all stats suggest we’ve got a great chance at a good price of 4/5.  

All of Juve’s last five Serie A games have gone under 2.5 and they’re 56% for ‘unders’ games away from home this season while Milan are bang on 50% when at home.  

Crucially, goals have historically been at a premium in this fixture. Ready for this? All of the last nine between these two have had less than three goals. There’s been a good mix of wins for either side and four of those nine were 0-0 draws. Another of those would do us just fine, but as long as there aren’t three, we’re equally happy.   

Jamie’s Fun Fact  

Porto have conceded just 14 goals this season, one of the reasons why they’re top of the table. Opponents Estrela have conceded 49, which is exactly 3.5 times more goals than Porto have.