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This will not be an easy game for Austria Wien to play in Russia in October.
Zenit and CSKA Moscow dominated the rough Russian League in the last three seasons, finishing on the first two places. Last year Zenit finished second, but now they are on first place thanks to a 5 game winning run. Actually Zenit’s form is so good, that the Sankt Petersburg side has a statline of 11 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in the last 13 games in all competitions! The lone defeat came at the hands of strong Atletico Madrid two weeks ago. Zenit has a super squad superstars like Hulk, Arshavin, Danny, Witsel, Tymoshchuk, Kerzhakov and also an experienced and savvy coach, Luciano Spaletti. After some years of jelling, Zenit is finally at its full potential – not only with star power, but very cohesive, and this is why the results are so good. They will have a big advantage playing at home in Russia in mid-autumn. Team news are kind with Zenit, the russians have no big problems. Shirokov will probably sit out.
Probable lineup: Lodygin – Ansaldi, Smolnikov, Lombaerts, Hubocan – Witsel, Fayzulin – Hulk, Arshavin, Danny – Kerzhakov.
Austria Wien is the weakest team in this Champions League edition. They have no real business being here. After barely getting a 1-0 aggregate success against FH, the austrians qualified for the group stages on the back of a fluke 2-0 win at Dinamo Zagreb that was having all sorts of problems at the time. Dinamo proved the better team in the reverse leg and led 3-1, but received a late goal. Austria Wien is on 5th place in the league at the moment and lost the last 4 out of 5 games in all competitions. In July they were destroyed by Salzburg, 5-1. Despite these, Wien played well in the first group game against Porto even though they lost 1-0. Austria Wien has really bad news in the team for this game: Grunwald, Gorgon, Stankovic, Rogulj and Dilaver are unavailable. Big blow for the visitors.
Probable lineup: Lindner – Koch, Rogulj, Ortlechner, Suttner – Simkovic, Holland, Mader – Spiridonovic, Hosiner, Jun.
After losing at Madrid, Zenit could say good-bye to qualification if they won’t succeed at home against Wien, a fixture that surely everybody will win on home court. Zenit is too good of a team to let that happen, especially with the experience brought by players like Arshavin or the coach Spalletti. There is a big gap in value between these two and considering that Zenit plays offensive football and loves to score, the handicap should be covered. Austria is weak in defense and concedes a lot of goals. They will play their hearts out, but with their squad problems, very bad form and lack of quality, it will not be enough. My call is 4-1 for Zenit and I am very confident in this bet.
Pick: Zenit (-1,5)
Odds: 1.76 @ Sbobet
Stake: 10
Possible profit: 7.60
Event date: 1 October
Editor Facts
- Ocean won 13 out of 16 tips in September
