Football Accumulator Tips: Not expecting an Espanyol Inquisition at the Bernabeu

A close call last week just makes us even hungrier for success this week as Jamie Pacheco brings you his usual three selections, from three different leagues, at odds of at least 3/1. 

This week's virtual tour takes us to Turin, Madrid and Lisbon as we go in search of the results we need for another winner for our Cross-European Football Accumulator Tips 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... 

Last week we got the over 2.5 goals we needed in Atalanta v Fiorentina (3-2) with plenty to spare and a PSG win over Brest with over 2.5 goals in it was an easy winner too, as PSG won 3-1. But all that was irrelevant because earlier in the day Alaves didn’t manage to avoid defeat against the uber-patriotic Espanyol. And we can feel pretty hard-done by that because despite losing 3-2, Alaves had 61% possession, six shots on target to Espanyol’s four and five corners to the hosts’ zero.  

But as a friend of mine used to say ‘near misses don’t feed the bulldog’. I suppose he was right because surely only people and the bulldog himself can feed the bulldog. But I was always confused about why as a non-dog owner he brought dogs into the equation at all, and why the bulldog was his choice of breed in the phrase, almost like other breeds could be fed by near-misses.  Either way, let’s put that all behind us, show some proper bulldog spirit and get on with. We are after all, still 2.19 points in profit for the season.  

Juventus v Napoli  

Saturday 21st September 17:00  

Selection: Draw or Napoli on the Double Chance market @ 4/6   

“It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in” 

So said then US President Lyndon B. Johnson about FBI founder J.Edgar Hoover. 

Napoli must have felt a similar way about Antonio Conte, who first with Juventus and then Inter Milan, caused the Gli Azzurri plenty of heartbreak, to the extent they decided that they we were better off having him as their manager themselves.   

Conte is not an easy man to please, be it as a player for whom whatever you do is never quite good enough or as a Sporting Director or Board of Directors, because whichever players you go out and buy for him are never enough, either. And when things don’t go exactly as he wants, he just walks away from the club. Let’s wait and see how long he stays this time before losing his patience.   

But if there’s one thing he is, it’s a born winner who leaves no stone unturned, be it the dressing room temperature or the condiments at the training ground lunch table. Just Google “Antonio Conte Ketchup”.  

After a laboured win over Modena on penalties in the Cup and a shock 3-0 defeat to Verona in their first Serie A match of the season, he’s now had some time to work on his system and preferred XI and what followed were three straight wins by 3-0, 2-1 and 4-0. 

They’re up against Juve this weekend no less, a match Conte will surely have been preparing for from the moment he took the job.  

Juventus have been ok so far with two wins followed by two draws but have beaten Napoli just once at home in the last three visits of the Southern club to Turin and the smart money is on them avoiding defeat here for the third time in four. 

Real Madrid v Espanyol  

Saturday 21st September 20:00  

Selection: Real Madrid to win to nil @ 4/5  

A big man may decide that after one side (Espanyol) cost them a win the previous week, they should leave them well alone rather than going after them for revenge.   

The problem is that at just 5.ft 8, I’m not a big man.  

Espanyol travel to the Bernabeu this weekend and face a side that for all their attacking talent that includes Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo, have a watertight defence to thank for so much of their success. Success that has included making winning the Champions League every year almost a formality.  

They won six of their last eight home matches last season without conceding and have already won both their home matches this season without letting one in. They did admittedly concede when beating Espanyol 3-1 two years ago (Espanyol were in the Segunda last season) but all of the seven before that were also home wins to nil.   

Enough evidence to think another 2-0 or 3-0 may well be on the cards.  

Sporting Lisbon v AVS   

Sunday September 22nd 20:30 

Selection: Viktor Gyokeres to score @ 4/9   

There’s an old Portuguese joke about a guy who pays a visit to an old man who can apparently remember everything. He asks him what the score was when 36 years earlier, on a particular day, Benfica played Belenenses. ‘1-0’, the old man says. Twenty years later he visits the old man again, who by this stage is on his death bed. He asks him ‘Who…’ before the old man interrupts and says ‘Jose Torres. Left footed into the bottom left-hand corner’.  

Well, I haven’t forgotten that Sporting’s Viktor Gyokeres was a key part of our 3-3-3 column win a few weeks ago and also contributed to a winner for us this week when we had SCP to beat Lille to nil at 15/8; he scored the first, as they won 2-0.  

So, it’s worth going to the well once again on a man whose stats just keep getting better every game. He’s now scored in every one of his six games this season, a total of nine, and could well improve on that yet again against a side that has conceded seven goals in four matches and will find things even harder against the best side in the country. 4/9 wouldn’t normally be the sort of price to be ploughing into a goalscorer but this is a man in the form of his life. 

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

James’ Fun Fact  

In his last six managerial roles, Antonio Conte’s win percentage has never fallen below 53.25% (Spurs) while it’s also been as high as 67.5%, during his two-year spell at Juventus and 65% when he was at Chelsea. It’s all a far cry from his first-ever gig in management when he won just one match out of 12 in his first spell at Arezzo, drawing seven and losing four, a win percentage of just 8%.