Monchengladbach v Dortmund, Saturday 5.30pm
You get plenty of value for money when you watch Borussia Dortmund play football this season, and they’ll be looking for more goals to keep pace with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga title race.
And Saturday’s opponents couldn’t be any better for Dortmund than local rivals Borussia Monchengladbach, who are having a torrid start to the season and have an even worse record against the visitors.
Dortmund have won 11 of the last 12 meetings and Gladbach arrive having won just one of their first five and without a clean sheet so far — that’s not what you need against a certain Erling Haaland and free-scoring Dortmund who have scored 17 goals this season.
Speechless. 😱 @ErlingHaaland #BVBFCU pic.twitter.com/rdswc7SICG
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) September 19, 2021
In fact, when Marco Rose’s side play you’re guaranteed goals at both ends and plenty of them — there’s been 28 in total in just five fixtures! You’re also almost always guaranteed a Haaland goal as he’s scored seven in five to take his tally to 68 in 67 games for Dortmund. He’s an incredible talent.
Dortmund have a lot of injuries to deal with, but Haaland isn’t one of them and even betting on two things that almost always happen, Haaland to score and over three goals in the match, still gets you decent odds at 6/4 and well worth backing.
PSG v Montpellier, Saturday 8pm
It’s looking like another title stroll for PSG this season and even with Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos and Marco Verratti all injured they should still put Montpellier away at the Parc des Princes on Saturday night.
They’ve won their first seven games but they’ve been a touch fortunate with their last two wins against Metz and Lyon both coming courtesy of stoppage time winners coming on 92 and 94 minutes.
Cristiano Ronaldo since joining Man Utd:
• 3 games
• 4 goalsLionel Messi since joining PSG:
• 3 games
• 0 goals pic.twitter.com/DHY2uR77v3— GOAL (@goal) September 20, 2021
Mauricio Pochettino has some wonderful attacking talent at his disposal, but defensively they’ve not been the best, with just two clean sheets so far and Montpellier have proved to be a fine attacking team this season. Only PSG themselves have scored more.
Montpellier, though, have also been dodgy at the back, very dodgy in fact and only five teams have conceded more this season. What makes that worse is that PSG have been prolific against them in previous home fixtures — scoring at least four goals in the last four meetings in Paris.
Considering how they both play then both teams should score and coupling that with over three goals at 6/4 looks like being a solid bet for this latest Ligue 1 fixture.
Barcelona v Levante, Sunday 3.15pm
It’s pretty sad to see what’s happening to a great old club like Barcelona as they lurch from disaster to disaster both on and off the pitch. Huge debts continue to cast a cloud of the Nou Camp. Ronald Koeman is essentially a dead man walking as a manager the club want to remove and their latest result was a 0-0 at lowly Cadiz.
As always in these situations, the characters who sold the farm and built up these massive debts are nowhere to be seen and it’s the club and their supporters who will suffer. And it looks like being a season full of suffering.
Two wins from five leaves them seven points behind leaders Real Madrid and although they’re 1/3 to still finish in Spain’s top four they do face a genuine battle to retain their Champions League place with everything that’s going on around them.
Barca boss Ronald Koeman even got sent off 🟥
The pressure is growing…#bbcfootball
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) September 23, 2021
A home tie with winless Levante, who have lost 16 straight games at the Nou Camp while conceding two goals in 12 of those, looks to offer the perfect opportunity to grab some rare joy for Barca. However, we said that in their last two games as they drew with Granada and Cadiz who have won a grand total of one game between them!
It remains a huge ask for a Levante team without a win in 14 games and without a clean sheet this season to beat even this struggling Barca — but they’ll know the longer they can frustrate the hosts the more the pressure will grow.
It should be a home win though, and it should come with a goal for Memphis Depay who is the main goal threat in the team this season. The Dutchman to score in a Barcelona win is a very popular 6/5 shot.
Lazio v Roma, Sunday 5pm
Talk about throwing petrol on the fire — throwing Jose Mourinho into a Rome derby could be far more explosive and makes this an even more eagerly-anticipated contest.
It’s the 155th derby game between Lazio and Roma, with the Giallorossi having the better of the rivalry with 55 wins to Lazio’s 39 — including a 2-0 victory back in May — but it’s been a decade since they managed successive clean sheets against their Eternal City rivals.
Tammy Abraham singing along with @ASRomaEN's pre-match anthem 😍 pic.twitter.com/gCTNSYGTBd
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) September 23, 2021
Lazio, though, have a strong home record and are unbeaten in their last 15 league games at home — whether that form can hold up given both teams play in the same stadium is another matter — but they are unbeaten as the home team in the last four derbies.
Both sides have scored 12 goals this season with similar defensive records but successive draws have seen Lazio fall four points behind their rivals — and another stalemate could be on the cards here, especially with Mourinho at the helm and his style of football.
Roma have, though, been finding the net with regularity with a goal in each of their last nine league games, but they’ve only kept a clean sheet in one of their last nine away games.
It’s set up for both teams to score here but with two stalemates in the last four then a score draw, priced at 100/30, would be the pick of the bets.
