Football Bet of the Day: The Champions League returns…

"Die Meister! Die Besten! Les grandes équipes! The champions!"

That’s right - before the final strawberry has been swallowed at Wimbledon, the 2025/26 Uefa Champions League gets underway on Tuesday night with the first-leg ties of the first-qualifying round. The league phase may be some way away for these teams, but below we’ve look at one of these clashes for our Football Bet of the Day. 

It’s the Welsh champions up against the Macedonian league winners on Tuesday night as The New Saints face Shkendija at The Venue (19:00 BST, BBC iPlayer). Now Wales is currently ranked at 49th in Uefa’s coefficient rankings, with North Macedonia below them in 51st, so there’s not an awful lot between the two footballing nations right now.

The New Saints vs Shkendija Odds

However, The New Saints sit 163rd in the clubs’ coefficient over five years, with Shkendija down in 205th. The New Saints have now won four consecutive Welsh titles to reassert themselves as top dogs and last season they made it to the league phase of the Uefa Conference League, with a play-off win over Lithuanian outfit Panevezys.

The Welsh side also won in the first round of Champions League qualifying last term, beating Montenegro’s Decic over two legs and with this level of experience I think they are in a strong position to progress once more. 

Today's Football Fixtures

Last season’s Conference League was a bruising affair, as they lost five out of six to teams like Panathinaikos, Fiorentina and Shamrock Rovers, but there was a moment of magic on home soil. They managed to beat Champions League regulars Astana by two goals to nil, while they only lost by that same scoreline to the Greek and Italian giants. 

They have turned into a decent team that should be able to compete at Conference League level, while Shkendija haven’t been able to have the same impact on European football quite yet. They’ve been in several qualifiers without much luck, and even lost on penalties to another Welsh side, Haverfordwest West, in the first round of Conference League qualifying in 2023/24. 

The New Saints should be able to get off to a winning start here, having won the Welsh league by 14 points in total. 1/1 for them to carry a lead to Macedonia feels like good value. 

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