Football Accumulator Tips: A 4/1 Cross-European Saturday Treble

No luck last time but we're pretty confident about this weekend's selections that combine goals at both ends, an away win and corners.   

Let's get on this treble that takes us to Cagliari, Best and Lisbon this weekend as we look to get back on track as our Portuguese-based football correspondent takes us through 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: -3.52pts  

Two out of three once again in our 3-3-3 Football Accumulator Tips column last week and it was the one that I would have considered the ‘banker’ that let us down. We needed Benfica to win (they did) with at least two goals in the game (they didn’t) which was a little frustrating to say the least, because all of their 14 previous wins this season had been with at least two goals in the game.

Yes, this one ended 1-0. In truth, we can’t have too many complaints about that because the goal they scored was Benfica’s only shot on target, but still.  

So, on we go in search of that third winner of the season.  

Cagliari v Atalanta       

Saturday, December 14 14:00  

Selection: Atalanta to win @ 8/15   

Atalanta are top of Serie A.  Not after one or two matches but after 15. A bit like Leicester all those years ago, this is the point of the season where you start to take note of them and their chances of going all the way, rather than thinking they’re just a flash in the pan.  

Out of those fifteen matches, they won 11 of them, proof they’re the real deal because this is Serie A we're talking about here, a league where any sort of win is at a premium.  

Atalanta are normally a go-to team for goals but this time around I prefer taking them to win the game. They’ve won each of their last four on the road and that includes beating high-flying Napoli and the improving Roma.  

They’re at Cagliari this weekend, currently 15th with seven defeats from their 15 games this campaign. Atalanta have won four of the last five editions of this fixture and their excellent away form suggests they could be about to improve on that.  

Brest v Nantes      

Saturday, December 15 16:00  

Selection: Under 9.5 corners @ 8/11   

People have very different motivations for watching football, either live at the stadium or on TV. Some enjoy watching the drama of their local team’s fortunes unfold, others enjoy watching the progress of their team’s young players, some like witnessing a load of goals, others just cherish the hard tackles and physicality of certain contests.  

But if you’re a fan of watching corners being taken, home matches at Brest are not the place to be. For all their Champions League success this season in their first-ever campaign in the competition, they’re simply struggling to find a formula that may lead to more corners in their matches, especially at home.  

The proof is in the pudding. In eight games at the Stade Francis-Le Blé, just one match had over 9.5 corners in it, which is sort of the over/under 2.5 goals of the corners world. And in that one they only got over the line ‘by the barest of margins’ as one well-known cricket commentator would have put it: there were 10.  

Opponents Nantes are 3/7 for under 9.5 corners for the season, which is a bit middle-of-the-road, but we can also take heart from the fact that all of the last three games between these two at Brest had nine corners, or fewer, in the game. So hopefully that will be the case again.  

Sporting Lisbon v Boavista       

Saturday, December 14 20:30  

Selection: Both teams to score @ 11/10   

Despite this being a column that’s very reliant on stats, it’s worth remembering they’re not the be-all-and-end-all. 

And the Sporting Lisbon v Boavista match is a good example of that.  Only once in the last five editions of this fixture in Lisbon did Boavista score a goal, a consolation one in a 6-1 drubbing last season. And they’re not exactly free scorers this season either with just eight goals in 13 matches. It’s somewhat surprising that despite that, three teams in the Superliga have scored even fewer than them: each of the three of those getting exactly seven so far.  

So, if the stats certainly don’t suggest goals at both ends, then what does? The answer is the current situation at Sporting.  

Since Ruben Amorim’s departure, they’ve been in freefall, losing four of their five matches, the odd one out being a comfortable win in the Cup against a side several divisions below them.  

But if you’re losing games, it’s because you’re conceding goals and since Joao Pereira took over, it’s been 10 from five games.  

So, despite having limited faith in Boavista’s scoring ability, I have plenty of faith in Sporting’s ability to implode and for their players to carry on sulking about the fact their revered former manager left the club.   

I have few doubts that the hosts will score at least once, now we just need Boavista to get one of their own.  

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

James’ Fun Fact  

The big star at Atalanta the last couple of seasons has been Ademola Lookman, who never quite managed to crack the Premier League but may return one day with a very different status to the one he had when he left it.  

This is a man who chooses his clubs carefully. Given his surname starts with the letter ‘L’, he’s made a point of only playing for clubs that have one of those in their name, playing at Leipzig, Fulham and Leicester before joining Atalanta.