Football Accumulator Tips: 3-3-3 Column is looking for goals this week

No luck last time but we're pretty confident about this weekend's selections that are all about the goals.  

Let's get on this treble that takes us to Seville, Lisbon and Verona this weekend as we look to get back on track with our 3-3-3 column Football Accumulator Tips for the 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: -2.52pts  

Two out of three last week with an endless number of yellows and red in that Montpellier v Lille game and the two Benfica goals we needed, but Milan rained on our parade by scoring a third when we needed them to stay put and let the game stay under 2.5 goals; shame on them.  

So we remain in the red. Why is being in the black good but being in the red, bad? No, I don’t know either. But here’s what I do know: I can smell the midnight oil I’ve been burning to get us back on track.   

Betis v Barcelona     

Saturday, December 7, 15:15  

Selection: Over 2.5 goals @ 4/9    

I find it quite extraordinary that the last English player to represent Barcelona was way back in 1989 when a certain Gary Lineker was donning the famous Blaugrana kit. He’d just arrived from Everton where he’d scored 31 goals in 40 games, including three hat-tricks, and had just been crowned the Golden Boot winner at Mexico 86. Initially he settled well under Terry Venables but the arrival of Johan Cruyff resulted in a shift to the right of midfield and later, a further shift to the subs bench. He left to join Spurs shortly after.  

Given their goalscoring record this season, you might be tempted to think the prolific striker was still playing there…as a striker.  

Barcelona goals, or at least high-scoring games, have been a big feature of their season. Quite why they’ve played 10 away games so far and only six home ones is anyone’s guess but 14 of those 16 games have gone over 2.5 goals, as solid a stat for a bet as you’re likely to find all weekend.  

They’re at Betis this weekend, a fixture that has produced at least three goals in 12 of the last 13 between them. Here’s hoping it’s not the last game on the Spanish version of Match of the Day this time round.  

Benfica v Guimaraes      

Sunday, December 8, 14:00  

Selection: Benfica to win + Over 1.5 goals @ 1/2    

Benfica have been good to us this season. You can just imagine the pre-match team talk, can’t you? “Right, lads. So James needs 3 goals/a win with BTTS/di Maria to score for the 3-3- column this week, so that’s all the motivation we need. Right?“ 

Maybe not but we’ve had plenty of joy out of them and we go to the well once more.  

They’re up against a Guimaraes side down in sixth, who have had a below par season to date.  

Benfica have won seven of their last eight, the odd one out being a 1-0 reverse at Bayern Munich, which is perfectly understandable.  They’ve also won all of their six home matches this season and given none of them was by 1-0, it follows that all of them were wins with at least over 1.5 goals in the match.    

All of the last three times they played this lot in the league resulted in a home win with at least two goals in it, too.  

Verona v Empoli      

Sunday, December 8, 14:00  

Selection: Over 2.5 goals @ 11/8

If someone offered you better than evens on something that happened seven times in a row, would you take it?  

I suppose it would depend on what something was. But all things being equal, it sounds like a pretty good deal.  

And that’s precisely the deal the Betfred traders are offering us on there being over 2.5 goals in Verona v Empoli. And when I talk about the seven in a row, I’m talking about the fact that every one of Verona’s - not to be confused with Juan Sebastian Veron – seven games so far this season have had at least three goals in them.  

Here are the scorelines if you’re curious: 3-0, 0-3, 2-3, 2-1, 0-3, 3-2 and 0-5. That last one was a real spanking (do people still say that?) at the hands of Inter Milan.  

Anyone would think Empoli are some massive slouches when it comes to over 2.5 goals games away from home, but they’re actually not. They’re 3/7 on the road and were the team on the receiving end of that 3-0 against Milan that cost us last weekend. So they sort of us owe us anyway.  

Either way, Verona have had 12 different scorers in Serie A so far this season. One of those can get all three goals we need, or they can share them around like Rolo's. That aren’t the last one, of course. In any case, I’m not fussed who gets the goals, as long as we get three.   

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

James’ Fun Fact  

Despite his glittering career and playing at three English top-flights clubs, the FA Cup win with Spurs in 1991 - the famous one where Gazza got badly injured - was his only major trophy in English football.