The final matchday across the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League produced plenty of drama and entertainment as all the English sides secured safe passage through to the knockout rounds (although Manchester United will have to do it the hard way having been forced into a play-off round).

Teams from Scotland and across the Irish Sea were less successful, but will no doubt be better for the experience. Away from football, the Cricket World Cup continues apace and we build towards a weekend of top-quality racing with Down Royal hosting the pick of the action.

As ever on a Friday we review Wednesday and Thursday to find out where punters could have won big on our spread betting markets.

Please remember that unlike fixed odds betting, when spread betting losses can exceed deposits.

CHELMSFORD THURSDAY 3^RD NOVEMBER 18:00 – CABEZA DE LLAVE 50-25-10 (SETTLED AT 50)

The penultimate race on the card at Chelmsford yesterday was a five furlong, Class 5 race with ten runners and a 4/1 favourite. It was basically the definition of a trappy race, and so it proved with the outsider Cabeza De Llave coming home in front by ¾ of a length.

Tucked in eighth position until the bend, Willie Carson’s mount had to come wide on the straight to get through the traffic and stayed on stoutly to defy the long odds, with the favourite Howzak coming home ninth.

As they were loaded into the Spreadex-branded stalls, Cabeza De Llave was priced at 0.50-2.00 on the 50-25-10 spread and a race win earned buyers 48x their stake. Howzak sellers meanwhile won 11x their stake.

PAKISTAN v SOUTH AFRICA – WIDES SQUARED (SETTLED AT 36)

Pakistan kept their slender hopes of qualifying from the Super 12s alive yesterday when they beat South Africa by 33 runs in a rain-affected match. Pakistan were able to bat the full complement of overs, scoring 185 in the process thanks to some rapid-fire scoring from Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed.

Across the 20 overs, South Africa’s bowling line-up gave away four wides and in the reverse innings, Pakistan bowled just two in the 14 overs South Africa were allotted after the delay. South Africa could only manage a score of 108/9 in reply to Pakistan, but it was a good match for sellers on the Wides Squared spread.

Set at 128-144 before the match, the spread settled at 36, as sellers won 92x their original stake.

MACCABI HAIFA v BENFICA – GOALS x SHIRTS (SETTLED AT 1540)

Shirt Number-related spreads are always popular and buyers were in heaven on Wednesday evening in Haifa as a late flurry of Benfica goals saw Shirt Numbers, Scrabbles Shirts, Shirts x Bookings, Goals x Shirts, and Shirts x Corners all return a healthy profit.

The biggest outright win was Shirts x Bookings which settled at 8800 against a spread of 3800-4200, but compared to the actual spread itself, Goals x Shirts was perhaps more impressive making up at 1540 against a spread of 337-367.

Alex Grimaldo – scorer of a stunning free-kick for Benfica – was the only player to score with a single-digit shirt number with Gonçalo Ramos (shirt 88), Peter Musa (33), and Henrique Araujo (39) all getting in on the act for the hosts.

With the game heading into injury time at 5-1 to Benfica, scores elsewhere meant that Benfica had to get another goal to progress in top spot, and in the second minute of injury time Joao Mario (20) fired in a rasping drive from the edge of the box to send Benfica fans (and Goals x Shirts buyers) into raptures.

With the final spread settling at 1540, buyers won 1173x their original stake.

Please note that these are examples of winning bets from the past week, and it is important to remember that spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital and can result in losses larger than your initial stake/deposit.