Sports Blog 18/08/2015: Match Preview – UEFA Champions League Qualifying Play-Offs 1st Leg, Tuesday 18th & Wednesday 19th August 2015

The long qualifying period for the 2015/16 Champions League is almost over, with only 2 legs left standing between the 2 remaining British sides and the competition proper.

First up on Tuesday is a long-awaited (well, a season anyway) return to European football for Manchester United, who host Club Brugge at 7.45pm on BT Sport Europe. Following their ignominious European admission in 2014/15 after failing to qualify during the dark year under David Moyes the pressure is on Louis van Gaal to ensure the Manchester side have a smooth path to the group stages of the Champions League. So far the Dutchman has done his job in the league; two solid, if decidedly unspectacular, wins over Tottenham and Aston Villa has seen United get off to an unbeaten start to the season.

Yet they only managed to score one goal in each, with the former win coming at the hands of a Kyle Walker own goal. Van Gaal insists Wayne Rooney isn’t United’s only option up front, and Adnan Januzaj staked his claim with his strike goal against Villa. However, the side are still chasing Barcelona’s Pedro, with chief executive Edward Woodward flying out to negotiation a £22 million bid for the Spaniard. And following an out of form performance last Friday the pressure is on Rooney to up his game ahead of Tuesday’s match, with the England international sitting at a Super Mega Goal Minutes spread of 47-55 with 7/2 fixed odds to score first.



Arguably United could have got a much tougher draw in the Champions League play-offs; however that perhaps does a disservice to Club Brugge, 2014/15 Belgian Pro League runners-up and Belgian Cup winners. So far in 2015/16 their form has been mixed, winning 2 losing 1 and drawing 1, leaving them 3rd in the league at this early stage in the season.

Club Brugge haven’t reached the Champions League proper since 05/06, where they came 3rd in a group that contained Juventus, Bayern Munich and Rapid Vienna. However, they looked decent in the third round of qualifying (where they entered the competition), beating Panathinaikos 4-2 over 2 legs, losing 2-1 in Greece before winning 3-0 in Belgium. Yet United have only lost 3 of their last 21 home games, leading our Spreadex traders to offer a Manchester United/Club Brugge Goal Supremacy spread of 1.4-1.6 with a Total Goals spread of 2.75-2.95.



Wednesday then sees Scottish champions Celtic face Sweden’s Malmo at 7.45pm on BT Sport Europe. Like United Celtic are unbeaten in the league so far this season, winning 3, drawing 1 and scoring 10 goals in the process. However, Celtic have been on the road to a Champions League group stage spot for a lot longer than the Manchester side. First Celtic had to face Icelandic champions Stjarnan in the second round, who they dispatched of the 6-1 over the 2 legs. Next up were Azerbaijan’s Qarabaq, who Celtic only managed to sneak one goal past in Glasgow. That was enough, however, to set up a play-off match against Malmo.



Swedish seasons are bit different than most of Europe’s major leagues; what this means is that Malmo qualified for the Champions League qualifying by winning the 2014 Allsvenskan, but are now around two thirds of the way through the 2015 season (which began in April and ends in October), where they currently sit in 5th. The Swedish side have so far managed 3 clean sheets in 4 qualifying games, beating beat Lithuanian champions Zalgiris 1-0 over 2 legs in the second round before overcoming a 2-0 away loss to Red Bull Salzburg with a 3-0 home victory at the Swedbank Stadion in the third round. Unluckily for Malmo they may have to overcome a similar deficit on the home leg of the play-offs; our traders are offering a Celtic/Malmo Goal Supremacy spread of 0.8-1 with a Total Goals spread of 2.5-2.7.

Make sure to check out Spreadex’s in-play odds for these games and the rest of the Champions League play-offs!