Tuesday Betting Tips

Inter Milan v Barcelona

Two of the favourites to lift the Champions League trophy line up tonight at the Giuseppe Meazza. The volcanic ash cloud has played havoc with the travel arrangements of all the teams playing in European competitions this week and Barcelona is no exception, after making a 1000km trip by coach to reach Milan. They left on Sunday morning, straight after their hard fought 0-0 derby result with Espanyol, where they had to play the last 30 minutes with 10 men. This left them very little time to recover before this big match, although Zlatan Ibrahimovic was rested before the reunion with his former employer.

This will be a much harder tie for Barcelona than Arsenal was. Arsenal’s style of play played perfectly into the hands of the Catalans, whilst Jose Mourinho’s Inter side will try to stop Barcelona playing their normal game. They showed against Chelsea that they are solid in defence and have a threat going forward, and will employ similar tactics here. In the group stage, the two sides played out a goalless draw here, and I expect a similarly tight game tonight. Another interesting statistic is that Jose Mourinho is on a run of 134 league matches at home without defeat. This suggests that Barcelona will have to be on top form to win here, and even that may not be enough.

Barcelona will be missing Andres Iniesta, one of their creative sparks, although they do have plenty of quality still in their ranks. Ibrahimovic will start, which will be a boost for Barcelona. Inter are likely to start with Eto’o and Diego Milito up front, with Wesley Sneijder as the playmaker.

Despite dominating games, Barcelona tend not to win too many corners, whilst Inter are likely to play more on the counter attack, meaning they may not force too many either. Therefore, I expect there to be relatively few corners in this game.

Bet: Under 2.5 goals @ 1.76
Bet: Under 9.5 corners @ 1.85

Notts County v Rochdale

Both teams secured promotion to League 1 last weekend, and this game will go a long way to determine the side that will take the title. Notts County have been flying since appointing Steve Cotterill and have won 11 of their last 13 games to storm through to the top of the table. They have a couple of class players for the level – the likes of Kasper Schmeichel and Lee Hughes are simply too good to be playing at this level.

Rochdale have been impressive all season, although have somewhat limped over the line, with five wins and three defeats in their past 10 games. In their past 5 games, they have only scored 1 goal, conceding 8, including an embarrassing 5-0 defeat at Torquay. However, they are still a quality side and will put up a good fight here tonight.

There is always the worry that teams may relax after winning promotion, but this applies to both sides, and given the fact that this may decide the destination of the titles, both sides will be going for victory. County have been in magnificent form recently and should continue their late charge for the title.

Bet: Notts County to win @ 1.86

Caersws v Newtown

Caersws are already relegated and come into this game on the back of a 7-1 defeat last weekend against Bangor. Newtown are safe and will be disappointed to have not picked up 3 points last weekend. These two sides met earlier this month and Newton ran out 4-1 victors. Since then, Caersws have lost all three games, and simply are not good enough for this division. And finally, an interesting point that both keepers in this game are called Dave Jones – irrelevant, but interesting…

Bet: Newtown @ 1.68