Brilliant Benfica and pitiful PAOK will be Monday night protagonists
Brilliant Benfica and pitiful PAOK will be Monday night protagonists

Brilliant Benfica and pitiful PAOK will be Monday night protagonists

There’s no Monday Night Football in the Premier League this week, but Greece, Spain and Portugal’s top tiers are in service. Combining the three bets suggested below from those games provides treble odds just shy of 11/1:

Asteras Tripolis to beat PAOK @ 13/5

PAOK have finished above Asteras Tripolis in each of the past five seasons, but despite that they left every single one of their journeys to face the lower-ranked side without a single point, rendering it a surprise that they are available to back at odds as chunky as 13/5.

Olympiakos are the only of the hosts’ eight Super League guests in 2016 to have beaten them, with four of the visitors defeated and three of the other four shut out. PAOK have won a mere two of their past dozen top-flight road trips.

Under 2.5 goals in Alaves v Deportivo La Coruna @ 8/15

All the suffering that Alaves suffered in their decade away from La Liga must already be feeling worth it a month into the return because they are unbeaten despite travelling to both Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, prevailing 2-1 at the latter last week in the result of the season so far.

Two of their three matches yielded under 2.5 goals, with the figure an even more compelling nine out of 12 once you dig into the final stretch of 2015/16.

Deportivo have gone not just under 2.5 but under 1.5 too in their latest two contests, while the sole reason that the one before hit three was an 87th-minute penalty from the since-sold Lucas Perez.

Back Benfica to lead Sporting Braga at half time @ 23/20

At first glance, Benfica and Sporting Braga’s 2016/17s have been identical: with three wins, a draw and eight goals from their four league fixtures and a home 1-1 draw from their first European group games, yet there is one clear difference: Benfica won a head-to-head Supertaca clash between the pair 3-0 in August.

Indeed, they always win showdowns between the teams, triumphing in five in a row and leading by the interval in four of those. The capital club have been ahead at the break in five of their six 2016/17 encounters, so 23/20 on them doing so again feels like a price that can’t be ignored.

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