Tuesday 4th March 2025

In Across the Leagues today:

• Forest and Bournemouth squeeze through…
• 66/1 Football League combo for tonight…
• Big games = potential draws… 

Tonight: Champions League picks at 51/1…

As the old saying goes: a win’s a win…

It took a pair of penalty shootouts. But our FA Cup picks both squeezed their way into the quarter finals over the weekend…

Bournemouth went in the book for us at 33/1 Each Way back in January (now 10/1). The Cherries have a tough task in the next round, taking on Man City. But our team will be at home - and Bournemouth have already beaten City once at the Vitality Stadium this season.

Nottingham Forest were a top-price 40/1 Each Way when we first got behind them (now 12/1). They are drawn away at Brighton in the quarter finals. Forest beat the Seagulls 7-0 (SEVEN-nil) in the league this season, as well as playing out a 2-2 draw at the Amex Stadium.

Those ties will be played at the end of the month.

There was also promising news for elsewhere over the weekend, as we said goodbye to February - and got a bit of March sunshine…

Coventry City won again. Frank Lampard’s side are now inside the Championship playoff places. Our 80/1 Football League Promotion combo of Coventry, Wrexham & Doncaster is now trading at 20/1.

And in our weekend picks from last Friday, Reading (won 2-1 at Wigan) and Barnsley (won 4-3 v Lincoln), combined for a 33/1 double in our Win & Both Teams to Score Trixie in the English Football League. And we were just one Grimsby goal away from a 200/1 jackpot treble there (drew 1-1 at Cheltenham).

We’re going again with these formbook picks in the Football League tonight. With the Win & BTTS markets offering a significant ‘bet boost’ compared to the standard match-win prices…

Rotherham v Leyton Orient - League One, 7.45pm

• Rotherham to Win & Both Teams to Score - 6 of Rotherham’s 8 home league wins this season have paid out for Win & BTTS. Only Bolton have recorded more home payouts in this market in League One this season

Reading v Exeter - League One, 8pm

• Reading to Win & Both Teams to Score - the Royals are ranked joint-2nd in the division for this bet, and 5 of Reading’s last 6 league wins have seen opponents get on the scoresheet. They’ve landed this bet twice in a row against Exeter

Bradford v Cheltenham - League Two, 7.45pm

• Bradford to Win & Both Teams to Score - Bradford are ranked joint-2nd in League Two for wins with goals at both ends in 2024/25, and are 1st for home payouts - with 7 of their 9 Win & BTTS results coming at Valley Parade

The advice here once again is a Trixie: three doubles and the big-odds treble. See below for bookies and best odds.

Champions League - angles of attack…

The Champions League round of last 16 knockout round kicks-off this week, with 1st-leg ties tonight and tomorrow…

A reminder of the chunky-odds Three C’s to keep an eye-out for in these high-intensity encounters - especially perhaps when it comes to next week’s decisive 2nd legs…

• Cards - discipline can go when the stakes are this high… with a place in the next round on the line, or faced with elimination from the competition…
• Comebacks - scoreboard turnarounds, Half Time/ Full Time comebacks, late goals, desperation and drama… it’s all up for grabs…
• Centre-backs - and other unlikely scorers… often an unheralded name can pop up with a big goal for their side…

‘Back the best’ is also a theme in huge games. And when it comes to scorers, the list of high-class candidates this week is pretty long: Kylian Mbappe, Mo Salah, Harry Kane, to name just three…

One I really like the look of for an Anytime Scorer bet this week is Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski. At 36 years of age, he’s still going strong…

Benfica v Barcelona - Wed 8pm

• Lewandowski is currently top scorer in Spain’s La Liga this season, and also 2nd in the Champions League standings. He’s landed Anytime Scorer bets in 7 of his last 9 games for Barca

‘Three draws’ is another big-odds angle that we’ve successfully played in important games over the past couple of seasons…

The odds for three draws generally tend to come out around 33/1. But for this week’s targeted trio of fixtures, we can get more like 50/1…

Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid - Tue 8pm

• A big local rivalry here, and the derby formbook points us to the draw: the 3 most recent encounters between Real and Atletico have all ended 1-1, as have the last 3 meetings with Real as the hosts. Just 2 points separate the clubs in La Liga this season (sitting 3rd and 2nd respectively)

PSV Eindhoven v Arsenal - Tue 8pm

• Arsenal are the bookies’ favourite, but they’ve got big injury problems up front, and have won just one of their last 4 games in all competitions - drawing 0-0 at Nottingham Forest last time out. And it’s very much worth noting these clubs played out a 1-1 draw at PSV in last season’s competition (and the Dutch side beat the Gunners in the Europa League the season before)

Bayern Munich v Bayer Leverkusen - Wed 8pm

• The top 2 in the German Bundesliga look set to grind it out here. We’re looking for Bayern to go through as one of our pre-season picks for the cup. But this may be very close… 2 of the last 3 meetings have ended in a draw, with 3 of the last 5 finishing all-square, and all 3 of this season’s contests going Under 2.5 Goals

We’ll stick with the aggressive tactic of the Trixie: three doubles, and the jackpot treble…

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TODAY’S PICKS & BEST ODDS

See above for full details

Three Football League games as listed above:

• Trixie. Win & Both Teams to Score: Rotherham, Reading & Bradford - best odds Bet365 (66/1 the treble), William Hill, 888 Sport, BetVictor (63/1)

Benfica v Barcelona:

• Anytime Scorer: Robert Lewandowski @ 57/50 (2.14) Unibet, BetUK, BetMGM, LiveScoreBet, 21/20 (2.05) Bet365

Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid
PSV Eindhoven v Arsenal
Bayern Munich v Bayer Leverkusen

• Trixie. Match Result: 3 Draws - best odds Betfred (51/1 the treble), BetVictor (48/1), 45/1+ general

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I’ll be back before the weekend with our next stats & selections…

P.S
Remember, you can log-in to view all our bet-specific stats for 18 leagues, hundreds of teams & thousands of players at:

www.acrosstheleagues.co.uk

Enjoy the football…

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Across the Leagues