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Adrian Mills’ tips for the midweek Champions League games include a win for Real Madrid and a comfortable three points for Liverpool.
Matchday Two of the revamped Champions League is underway and there are nine games to be decided on Wednesday evening across Europe.
Reigning champions Real Madrid are in France to face Lille, while Liverpool entertain Bologna at Anfield and Juventus head to Germany to face RB Leipzig.
We have picked out our four best bets from the Wednesday matches, while we also have a comprehensive preview of the big game at Villa Park as Bayern Munich face Unai Emery’s side.
Best bets
Club Brugge to score over 1.5 goals @ 11/10
Girona to beat Feyenoord @ 1/1
Real Madrid to beat Lille @ 4/7
Liverpool -1 vs Bologna @ 8/15
Brugge can find stride in Austria
Club Brugge would have had a certain amount of regret after their Matchday One loss at home to Borussia Dortmund. Manager Nicky Hayen admitted that he felt his side had let a chance slip against last season’s beaten finalists.
It’s hard not to agree as Brugge created some really good scoring chances and 10 shots from inside the penalty area. They didn’t make an incision and, ultimately, Dortmund made them pay heavily with three second half goals.
Sturm Graz, back amongst the Champions League elite after more than two decades, were second-best against debutants Brest in France, allowing the Ligue 1 outfit create a hatful of really good scoring chances in that 2-1 loss.
If the Belgian visitors play to a similar level, they can breach this Graz backline on more than one occasion.
Girona can rise to the occasion
There should be a rocking atmosphere at the Estadi Municipal de Montilivi when Girona play their first ever Champions League game on home turf.
The La Liga side put up a gallant showing in Paris last time, only to be cruelly undone by a late goalkeeping error that handed PSG a win that they seemed incapable of securing.
Feyenoord, meanwhile, were swatted aside on their own patch as Bayer Leverkusen put four past them. The Eredivisie side lost all three away games in the group phase last season.
Girona are on a five-game winless streak but they’ve drawn their last two domestic games and may rise to the occasion against a visiting side with only a win over struggling NAC Breda to show from their last five.
Real to march on
Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid side are 36 games unbeaten in all competitions, a run that helped propel them to their record-extending 15th success in this competition.
Lille’s weekend win over Le Havre ended a run of five without a victory, while Real missed out on Madrid derby success only after a 95th-minute leveller from Atletico in a tempestuous affair at the Metropolitano.
Kylian Mbappe is back in the squad for this visit to his homeland and he has scored in five successive games for Los Blancos, who themselves had netted 10 times in three games prior to Sunday’s scrap with Atleti. The European champions can earn a second group stage win here.
Reds to distance themselves from Bologna
Liverpool took care of Italian opposition in their opener, beating AC Milan 3-1 in the San Siro despite conceding inside three minutes, and Arne Slot’s side should have clear daylight again when they are finished with Bologna at Anfield.
The Reds will be attempting to protect a 10-game winning sequence in European group stage/league phase matches on their own patch.
They overcame Manchester United and Bournemouth by three goals in the league and West Ham by four in the League Cup lately.
Liverpool should cruise past a Bologna side who couldn’t engineer a way past Shakhtar Donetsk in their opening game despite having 17 shots at the target and will find it much tough going against a Liverpool side looking very solid defensively.
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