Champions League Tips: Celtic to avoid Warsaw repeat

Celtic opened the Scottish Premiership season with two victories

Celtic's trip to Maribor won't be as distressing as their recent stay in Warsaw, while Porto should prosper...

NK Maribor v Celtic
Wednesday, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports 5

Match Odds: NK Maribor 2.942/1, Celtic 2.6813/8, The Draw 3.45n/a

Celtic's downfall against Legia Warsaw, before a fortuitous reprieve due to the Polish side fielding an ineligible player, was triggered by defensive disappointment. Having kept ten clean sheets in their 11 prior qualifiers, they lost 1-4 away and 0-2 in Scotland. Five of their last six trips abroad have delivered two goals or less, including visits to Amsterdam ArenA and San Siro.

NK Maribor should be perfect for coaxing out their inner under-2.5-goals enthusiast, as the Slovenians' last six Champions League home games - all of which took place in the last two years and in the preliminary process - sailed beneath the mark, providing just seven goals in total.

Recommended Bet: Back under 2.5 goals @ 1.768/11

Lille v Porto
Wednesday, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports Red Button

Match Odds: Lille 2.942/1, Porto 2.89/5, The Draw 3.259/4

The success of Portuguese teams in Europe often goes unappreciated. Despite only possessing four clubs of notable continental pedigree (Porto, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon and more recently Braga) and that quartet selling their best players almost every summer, they continually compete with the elite, to the extent that they have the fourth-highest UEFA coefficient ahead of Italy and France.

Porto are standard bearers, reaching the Champions League knockout phase in five of the past eight seasons, and have recruited brilliantly in this window: Bruno Martins Indi, Casemiro, Adrian Lopez, Cristian Tello and much more besides. Hosts Lille have won one of their last ten home fixtures in the competition (1-0 in 90 minutes in a qualifier with FC Copenhagen), so Porto will rightly be confident.

Recommended Bet: Back Porto win (draw no bet) @ 1.9620/21

Standard v Zenit St Petersburg
Wednesday, 19:45
Live on Sky Sports Red Button

Match Odds: Standard 4.47/2, Zenit St Petersburg 2.01/1, The Draw 3.613/5

The Champions League qualifiers are held at the same point every year, yet you sense that there couldn't be a worse time for Standard Liege to be battling an expensively-assembled Zenit St Petersburg squad for a place in the group stage. They would always be the outsiders, but face the added challenge of being without between five and seven players through injury.

In the context, a 0-0 draw with a view to getting bodies back and an away goal in next week's return wouldn't be a bad result for the Belgians, whose past four Champions League home matches dipped under 2.5 goals. Zenit haven't drawn any of their last 11 road dates in the competition, yet five of the latest nine finished 1-0, including an unsuccessful journey to AEL Limassol in the previous round.

Recommended Bet: Back under 2.5 goals @ 1.824/5