Aalborg – APOEL

Aalborg APOEL Nicosia betting previewAalborg and Apoel will meet in the Champions League playoffs first leg after both survived a scare in the previous round.

Aalborg won the league over Copenhagen last year but they might blow all their hard work if they do not improve fast. The Danes started the league in very poor fashion with just 6 points in the first 5 league rounds. They did qualify over Dinamo Zagreb in the previous Champions League round, winning 2-0 away after losing 1-0 at home – apparently a great result but an analysis will show that it was rather misleading, as Zagreb was all over Aalborg and the Danes were very, very lucky to go trough. AaB lost their best player Kusk in the summer, but brought in good replacements so quality wise they are about the same as last season.

APOEL wasn`t too impressive either in the 3 games they played so far. Nicosia was down 0-2 at HJK in the first leg of the previous Champions League round, but the finish side had a man sent off early and did not manage to hold the lead. APOEL went on to lose 2-0 at home and qualify, but in their last match they lost the Cyrpus Supercup against Ermis. APOEL brought in some decent players in the summer hoping to reach the Champions League group stages but their level of play is not that impressive.

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Team news & lineups

Aalborg has some problems for this game, missing 5-6 players, APOEL is in a better state with not so many injuries and / or suspensions.

AaB: N.Larsen – Kristensen, Pedersen, Thelander, Blåbjerg – Würtz, Wichmann, Enevoldsen, Thomsen -Helenius, Jacobsen.

APOEL: Pardo – Guilherme, Carlão, Mario Sérgio, Antoniades – Morais, Charalambidis, Vinicius, Gomes – De Vincenti, Sheridan.

I would be tented to pick the home side here because i don`t rate APOEL too highly, but Aalborg has its own problems. I reckon the better bet is the over 2,5 goals, despite the fact that this is expected to be a low scoring game. I`ll explain my analysis. Fact is that AaB does not defend too well – they could have easily received 3-4 goals from Dinamo Zagreb in the previous round and allowed at least 1 goal in 4 of their last 5 games. APOEL on the other hand has a goal difference of 5-4 in 3 official matches. Last season both sides were very offensive, especially APOEL scoring at will in Cyprus. Expect the game to start off in a cautious manner but one goal should change everything. The way the two have been playing, I expect a couple of defensive errors to help with the bet on the over. At these odds I am happy to tip a high scoring game, so I will pick the over 2,5 goals here. Prediction: Aalborg – APOEL Nicosia 2-2.

Pick: over 2,5
Odds: 2.50 @ William Hill
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 10.5
Event date: 20 August

About Rostick

Born in '88. Running betting tips websites since 2007. Launched Betdistrict in 2013. Worked as a bookie for a year to spy on the other side. Rugby Union and NBA expert. Editor info & statistics.

One comment

  1. Thabo d Mandleni

    wow what a boring game what ever u can call it between Turkish gia
    nt and arsenal

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