Football Accumulator Tips: Jamie’s 3/1 Weekend Cross-European Treble

A great winner at 4.23/1 has us firmly back in profit for the year and Jamie Pacheco is about to explain why this was the most satisfying win of the season to date.  

This week's selections is made up of big hitters in Real Madrid, Benfica and PSG so let's find out what they are, as we look to go back-to-back as we take a look at 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: +6.08pts  

The column won at odds of 4.23/1 last week and of the wins so far this season, it was perhaps the most satisfying.  

What I mean by that is that most of the wins we had were comfortable ones that came good with plenty to spare, while other near-misses were just that: unlucky losses by a single goal or corner.  

But the Benfica game aside, this time we didn't win with much to spare at all. We needed five bookings or more in the Lille v Montpellier match and got exactly five, while it was all down to the Empoli v Roma match on Sunday where we needed Roma to win. And they did, just. They scored to make it 1-0 in the first half and that's how it stayed.  

So satisfying that one went our way and even more satisfying that we're back to showing a healthy profit for the column, which is what this is all about. Let's try to show an even healthier one.  

Villarreal v Real Madrid 

Saturday March 15 17:30  

Selection: Back both teams to score @ 4/9       

An exhausted but happy Real Madrid travel to Villarreal after just about edging out rivals Atletico in midweek in the Champions League.  

They surely won't be at their best with all those extra minutes in their legs and I wouldn't rule out an ever-competitive Villarreal getting something from this game.  

But Real have too much going forward to not score, while their defence has failed to keep a clean sheet in their last four: twice against Atletico in Europe but also against Betis and Rayo Vallecano in the league.  

Five of the last six between these two has resulted in BTTS including last year' s fixture ending 4-4. I wouldn't want to predict who will walk away with the points, or if they'll be shared, but we really should get at least one goal at both ends.  

Rio Ave v Benfica   

Sunday March 16 18:00 

Back Benfica to win @ 4/11  

Benfica will look back at that two-legged tie against Barcelona and wonder what may have been had they made the most of their numerical advantage in the first leg and won it 2-0 like they probably should have, rather than losing 1-0, which really shouldn't have happened. They then lost the second leg 3-1 which was less surprising.  

But their European campaign has still been an extremely profitable one from a financial point of view and at least they can now focus solely on domestic matters.  

And that should start with a win against a side 27 points behind them and who they have beaten in 12 of their last 13 attempts, home and away. The one worry is that the one they didn't win was precisely at Rio Ave last season, which ended 1-1. But we'll put that down to just an anomaly and the smart money is on Benfica coming good again, so the straight win at 4/11 it is.  

Paris St Germain v Marseille   

Sunday March 16 19:45  

Selection: Back PSG to win and both teams to score @ 6/4   

Similar to last week, we're taking a considerable gamble on the third of our selections by going in at a much bigger price than we normally would.  

Our selections tend to be around the 8/13 or 4/6 mark but this one is way out at 6/4. What that does do however, is allow us to include the first two selections at much shorter odds than usual. So in an ideal world, they'll win comfortably enough and it will all be down to this one. And despite the odds-against price, I think if it does come down to this one, I'm pretty confident.  

PSG were superb in midweek at Anfield, being the better side over the two legs and keeping their cool in the shootout to go through and rain on Liverpool's parade. I hope they go on to win the whole thing because they're a good footballing side who play the game in the right spirit. It would also be nice to see a new team winning it after Real's dominance in the competition.  

But back to this game. PSG are head and shoulders above Marseille right now in terms of pure ability, though OM have made a good fist of at least making sure they're likely to finish as runners-up to this impressive PSG outfit.  

But they're still 16 points below them and the Parisians have won 11 of their last 13 home against them and four of their last five at home since mid-December.  

But what's interesting is PSG's bad habit of conceding at home even when they're winning. Well, a bad habit for them but it could prove to be a good habit for us. They've conceded in all of their last six at home, winning four of those. I'm not really not worried about PSG winning the match, I'm sure they will, but what we really need is a Marseille goal in the process.  

A home win with both teams scoring is 6/4, as mentioned already.  

James' Fun Fact  

Real Madrid and Barcelona are tied at the top of the table on 57 points each, though Barcelona do have a game in hand on them. Though Barcelona have outscored Real pretty comfortably this season, they're somewhat freakishly separated by just one goal when it comes to goals conceded, with Barca letting in 25 and Real 26.