The World Cup has come to an end, but attention swiftly turns to the new club season with a whole host of Champions League qualification matches and Scottish League Cup games taking place on Tuesday.
We have a trio of selections which make up our best bets of the day.
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Bet of the Day
Hearts draw no bet v Sturm Graz @ 19/10
It’s been a summer of change for Hearts, with Wouter Vrancken taking over from former manager Derek McInnes and experienced performers Lawrence Shankland and Cammy Devlin following McInnes to Rangers.
However, it could also mark a period of progress for the Jambos, who went mighty close to winning the Scottish Premiership title last season.
There have been a whole host of arrivals at Tynecastle in the last couple of months and there have been some fair transfer fees to bring Malachi Fagan-Walcott and Sabri Guendouz to the Scottish capital.
The involvement of Jamestown Analytics means you can be pretty sure that Hearts’ additions will be strong and the market may be underplaying the ability of the Jambos at this stage of the season.
Sturm Graz were pipped to the Austrian Bundesliga title last term, but the standard of the top flight certainly slipped and the Blacks won only two of their eight Europa League matches.
Last term’s 2-1 home victory over Rangers and 2-1 loss to Celtic at Parkhead suggest that Sturm Graz have little in hand over Scotland’s top team and certainly not enough to make Hearts 19/10 chances on the draw no bet market.
Bet Builder
Fenerbahce half-time full-time, Fenerbahce -1, Both teams to score (No), Fred Anytime Goalscorer @ 23/4
Fenerbahce have been beefing up their squad this summer with the big-money signings of Mason Greenwood, Sidiki Cherif, Vedat Muriqi and Nathan Ake.
Cherif is the only one of those new arrivals to have been included in Fener’s squad for the Champions League qualification tie with Gornik Zabrze, but İsmail Kartal’s men still rate well above their Polish opponents.
Fenerbahce lost out on the Turkish title in dramatic fashion last season, but they ended the campaign with a +40 goal difference and only went down narrowly to a good Nottingham Forest side in the knockout rounds of the Europa League.
Gornik Zabrze won the Polish Cup and finished runners-up in the top division last season, but they didn’t even reach a European qualification spot in the previous campaign.
Fener, who have smashed in 11 goals in three pre-season games too, can take control of this game early and win with plenty in hand, while it might be worth backing Fred to find the back of the net.
The former Brazil midfielder is far from prolific but scored three goals in the last two games of last season, while he added another in pre-season along with three assists so is clearly getting into plenty of advanced positions.
Acca
Sabah FC to beat KuPS, Slovan Bratislava to beat Iberia Tbilisi, AGF to beat Lech Poznan @ 13/2
Sabah cruised past TNS in the first round of Champions League qualification, while the Azerbaijan side were a little unfortunate to lose to Levski Sofia in the third round of last year’s European competition. KuPS face the long trip east and are likely to leave Masazir empty-handed.
Slovan Bratislava bossed the Slovak top flight last term and also picked up two wins in the league phase of the Conference League. That isn’t world-beating form, but it’s strong enough to make Slovan Bratislava the clear pick against Iberia Tbilisi.
AGF won their first Danish top-flight title since 1986 last season, losing only three games, and Jakob Poulsen’s men are on the rise. Lech Poznan were beaten at the last-16 stage of last term’s Conference League and the Polish side are unlikely to win in Aarhus.
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Odds correct at time of publish and subject to change.
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