LIVERPOOL meet Midtjylland on Tuesday night in the Champions League. Brett Curtis (@Brett_Curtis92) is on-hand to deliver his favourite fancies.
Liverpool vs Midtjylland | Tuesday 27th October 2020, 20:00 | BT Sport
Six-time European champions Liverpool take on Champions League debutants Midtjylland on Tuesday at Anfield. The Reds kicked off their European campaign with a gritty 1-0 win at Ajax last week, with the Danish outfit thumped 4-0 at home to Atalanta in their first ever group stage match.
Jurgen Klopp substituted Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah for Diogo Jota, Takumi Minamino and Xherdan Shaqiri on the hour mark during the victory at Amsterdam, and it remains to be seen whether he does so from the start here – or at least at a similar stage of proceedings – with three tough fixtures against West Ham, Atalanta and Manchester City on the horizon.
Klopp has confirmed Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita and Joel Matip will be unavailable on Tuesday, but with team selection still uncertain, I'm keeping away from any player-related bets and would advise others to until the teams are announced.
Liverpool are unsurprisingly heavily odds-on to beat Brian Piske's side, who are currently second in the Danish Superliga after six matches but obviously face another gigantic step up in quality against an elite European outfit.
I'm forced to get more creative than usual to find value here, then, with Bet365's Bet Builder function an obvious solution. Despite being thumped by Atalanta last week, I'm a little cautious to back Liverpool to win by the same scoreline due to the potential amount of changes Klopp may make as well as his side's tendency to take the foot off the gas when leading in games.
I believe even a second-string XI – and I don't expect as many changes as that anyway – could beat Midtjylland by two or more goals, though, so will add that to the Bet Builder as a starting point.
With the visitors blanking at home to an Atalanta side who, for all their attacking brilliance can be defensively leaky, I certainly can't see Midtjylland scoring more than once past Liverpool either, so will add Under 2 Goals for the Danish side.
Lastly, Pawel Raczkowski officiates this one in what will be the Pole's fourth Champions League match. In his previous three matches he has shown just four yellow cards at an average of 1.33 per-game, so while we are relying on a very small sample size in terms of this competition, I personally had in mind a low card count in this match anyway.
Both sides' European matches last week had less than four cards shown, so we can add Under 4 Cards for Both Teams Combined to the bet for total odds of 21/20. Lastly, for those looking for bigger odds, I wouldn't dissuade anyone from backing the 2-0 and 3-0 scorelines, which are best-priced at 13/2 and 7/1 with SkyBet.
Best Bets
Liverpool vs Midtjylland – Liverpool to win by two or more goals, Midtjylland Under 2 Goals and Under 4 Cards (21/20 Bet365)
Liverpool vs Midtjylland – Liverpool to win 2-0 (13/2 SkyBet)
Liverpool vs Midtjylland – Liverpool to win 3-0 (7/1 SkyBet)
