SOCCER FOOTBALL 24H

Zenit St Petersburg 2.16 v Valencia 4.00 ; The Draw 3.40 Tuesday, 17:00 Live on BT Sport 2 This is the first time this season that Zenit St Petersburg have gone into a Champions League match not needing to win, with qualification assured and a point enough to confirm first place, but owning the sole remaining 100% record is a source of great pride and 2.16 is a big price on them maintaining it. They scored three times in Valencia, leading 2-0 by half time, while Los Che showed that they are nothing too special on the road by losing to Gent on matchday four, their third away defeat in four across all competitions. Zenit have won six in seven as hosts, drawing the exception 0-0. Recommended Bet: Back Zenit St Petersburg to win @ 2.16 Barcelona 1.30 v Roma 12.00 ; The Draw 6.40 Tuesday, 19:45 Live on BT Sport Extra 2 Barcelona should secure their round-of-16 spot without much bother having already accumulated ten points, yet it is unclear who will follow them throug...

All of these matches kick-off at 19:45 on Wednesday Atletico Madrid 1.32 v Galatasaray 14.00 ; The Draw 5.70 Live on BT Sport Extra 4 The 2013/14 finalists have yet to confirm their participation in the knockout rounds for a third straight season owing to a 2-1 home defeat to Benfica in September, but a point when hosting Galatasaray will see them through and should prove a formality in their current defensive form. Diego Simeone's men have kept clean sheets in ten of their 16 games in 2015/16, including the reverse fixture at Turk Telekom Arena, and are now at the peak of their resiliency, shutting out five of their last seven opponents. Even one of the two goals that they conceded in that period was a penalty. Recommended Bet: Back Atletico Madrid to keep a clean sheet @ 1.75 Malmo FF 14.00 v Paris St-Germain 1.29 ; The Draw 6.40 Live on BT Sport Extra 5 What has Malmo FF's Champions League home "Both Teams to Score? No" ...

Real Madrid v Barcelona Saturday 17:30, Live on Sky Sports 2 The season's first Clasico arrives with La Liga's table looking somewhat familiar - Barcelona top, Real three points behind. The winner of this game will end the weekend in first place - and with Spain's table decided by head-to-head results rather than goal difference, winning the Clasico has added importance. System dilemmas for Benitez This game comes at a difficult time for Real, who lost their first league game of the season last time out, away at Sevilla. Rafael Benitez welcomes back Karim Benzema, essentially his only established centre-forward, but that doesn't entirely explain precisely how Real will line up at the Bernabeu this weekend. Benitez started the season playing a 4-2-3-1 system, essentially attempting to accommodate as many of his star players as possible. Gareth Bale often played in an unfamiliar number 10 role which only partly worked. When Benitez los...

Borussia Monchengladbach v Hannover 96 Saturday November 21, 14:30 After weeks of campaigning by fans and players alike, Borussia Monchengladbach have finally named Andre Schubert as their coach on a permanent basis. Having replaced Lucien Favre in the hotseat with the Foals still looking for their first Bundesliga point after five matches, Schubert has collected 19 points from an available 21, and Gladbach are now just a point off the top four. I can understand why Gladbach sporting director Max Eberl was reluctant to give Schubert the job too quickly. The 44-year-old had no previous Bundesliga experience as a coach, and a previous spell at St Pauli had been a total disaster. That background makes Schubert's success this season all the more extraordinary. He has revitalised a group that had totally lost confidence, and has dealt well with an injury crisis which has robbed him of key players like Martin Stranzl and Patrick Herrmann. Not bad for a man who wasn't ...

Brentford [2.36] v Nottm Forest [3.3]; The Draw [3.55] The Championship manager-go-round is becoming a rather embarrassing affair and you just wonder if Dougie Freedman will be in for the chop should his Nottm Forest side, as I suspect they will, lose at Brentford. No less than six managers have lost their job since this time last month alone, and my theory is that owners and chairman have realised that this year's Championship is so open that with the correct appointment their own club could easily get in the mix. How else do you explain Kit Symons losing his job at Fulham following a defeat to Birmingham. If the Cottagers had have won that game they'd now be sitting three points off a play-off place. Were Fulham expected to challenge for the play-offs at the start of the season? I doubt they were. Back to this game and the focus is now fully on Freedman. Failure to beat East Midlands rivals Derby in the game before the international break was expected to see t...

Juventus v Milan Saturday, 19:45 Live on BT Sport 1 Having won two successive Serie A matches, and finding some previously elusive home form, Juventus are starting to loom large in the Scudetto picture. They're nine points behind the joint leaders and don't be surprised if they still have a part to play at the end of the season. Juve will be disappointed not to have made absolutely sure of Champions League progress after a double dose of Borussia Mönchengladbach, and they'll have one eye on next week's game here against Manchester City. That may give improving Milan a chance, and with Alessio Cerci and Carlos Bacca starting to find some real form, I expect Juve's shaky rearguard to be tested here. Max Allegri's team have conceded in each of their last three, and Gigi Buffon's muscular problem means that there's a possible start for the error prone Norberto Neto. Giorgio Chiellini hasn't looked like the force of old, and with Stephan...

Lorient v PSG (7th v 1st) Sat, 16:00 GMT PSG are easily Ligue 1's strongest side but there are good reasons to believe Lorient will trouble them this weekend. First, Lorient go into the game in excellent form: since the start of September their record is W5-D3-L1 . Second, Lorient are in fine scoring form. They have netted 20 times in that excellent nine-game run since the start of September and showed how dangerous they can be even when they are below-strength by putting four goals past Troyes (4-1) a fortnight ago even though star summer signing Majeed Waris was suspended (as he will be this weekend). PSG have built up such a big lead (10pts) at the top of Ligue 1 they can afford to pick and choose their games and will already have one eye on next Wednesday's Champions League fixture at Malmo. It is hard to make a case for Lorient winning but given their form and confidence they are worth backing to score and to make this a difficult evening for PSG. For m...

Espanyol v Malaga Saturday 19:30 (Live on Sky Sports 2) Espanyol 2.46 , Malaga 3.35 , The Draw 3.30 Barcelona's other team, Espanyol, have the dubious honour of attempting to follow whatever happens in Saturday afternoon's clasico. Happily for the Parakeets , this weekend they host Malaga, who have scored no goals at all in their first five away games of 2015/16. Unhappily for the hosts, they haven't won this fixture since 2010, drawing it in each of the last three seasons. Worse, they've only scored four times in five outings at the Cornella-El Prat this term. Going back into last season, Sergio Gonzalez's men have struck just 10 times in 13 home games - and never more than once in a single match. Four of Malaga's five away games have ended with Under 1.5 Goals and both of Espanyol's home wins this season have been 1-0 . Feel free to switch over as soon as the final whistle goes in the Bernabeu. Recommended Bet Back Under 1.5 Goals @ 3.00 S...

Both of these matches kick-off on Tuesday at 19:45 Germany 1.88 v Netherlands 4.70 ; The Draw 3.90 Live on BT Sport Europe Though these rivals could hardly be on more contrasting paths, with Germany the World Cup holders and 4.30 Euro 2016 favourites and Netherlands not even participating at the tournament, this writer quite fancies the visitors to triumph at 4.70 . Danny Blind's side have surprisingly prevailed in three of their past four away games despite their horrid form - the latest a 3-2 success in Wales - whereas Germany are winless in three post-World Cup home friendlies, conceding eight across losses to Argentina and USA and a draw with Australia. However, that bet will be a tough sell to many punters, so a more crowd-pleasing option is over 2.5 goals at 1.72 . The hosts' last five friendlies in front of their fans delivered four, seven, six, four and three strikes respectively, and the Netherlands have gone over in their last four outi...

England v France Tuesday, 20:00 Live on ITV1 England Roy Hodgson's England were undone by two sublime goals in Alicante against Spain on Friday evening, but otherwise did fairly well, practicing how to play on the back foot, keeping compact and working on defensive shape and formation - something that will be paramount should they be drawn against a good team at any stage during Euro 2016. But one thing the Three Lions must learn to do, is keep the ball. If they cannot keep the ball against better teams they simply will not win. Manchester United's Jesse Lingard has been called into the squad and could feature at some stage. France France were able to beat an experimental Germany 2-0 in the Stade de France on Friday night thanks to goals from Arsenal's Olivier Giroud and Tigres' Andre-Pierre Gignac, but the game was very much overshadowed by events that followed in Paris. They take the same squad into this game. Match Odds The Match Odds market...

Colombia 2.50 v Argentina 3.40 ; The Draw 3.15 Tuesday, 20:30 Live on Betfair Live Video The best South American performers at World Cup 2014, tournament runners-up Argentina, are trying their hardest to make qualification for the 2018 edition as interesting as possible, struggling to just two points in their opening three qualifiers. Colombia haven't been too impressive either, following a 2-0 victory over Peru in their opener with a 3-0 loss and a draw, but they can at least comfort themselves that only one of their introductory trio was at home, whereas Argentina have played as hosts twice without winning. Another theme has been low scores, with all three of Argentina's games going under 2.5 goals plus two of Colombia's, yet that should end in Barranquilla. The previous two clashes between the sides staged by Los Cafeteros produced three goals, they haven't been shut out in 13 qualifiers in front of their fans and the Albiceleste's zero in Parag...

Norway 1.90 v Hungary 5.30 ; The Draw 3.45 Thursday, 19:45 Live on Sky Sports 3 Norway Though third place was par for Norway in Group H, they arguably performed above expectations in winning six of their ten matches and getting within five points of table-toppers Italy and one adrift of Croatia as they chase a first tournament appearance in 16 years. Indeed, they even defeated the latter, ultimately missing out on automatic qualification because of a careless home draw with lowly Azerbaijan in June. What is in their favour is that they finished their group formidably, prevailing in three in a row and then leading Italy for 50 minutes in Rome, while the sole member of their squad who might miss out on this first leg is Tom Hogli, who is nursing a back complaint. Hungary Being positioned as the 2.50 outsiders to survive this double-header should serve as motivation to Hungary. After all, they were the best-rated performers of the eight play-off participants, only be...

Ukraine 1.65 v Slovenia 7.40 ; The Draw 3.75 Saturday, 17:00 Live on Sky Sports 1 Ukraine collected three points more than Slovenia from what many - particularly those desperate to understate England's 100% qualifying win rate - would argue was a more challenging group and they also had a flawless record in their six clashes with sides whose tallies were tinier than theirs. Slovenia have lost eight of their last ten away games , with Lithuania and San Marino the only nations not to beat them in that run, and they were shut out in six of those eight reverses. Ten of Ukraine's past 11 competitive victories were achieved without conceding, so that should become 11 in 12. Recommended Bet: Back Ukraine to win to nil @ 2.36 Sweden 2.38 v Denmark 3.60 ; The Draw 3.25 Saturday, 19:45 Live on Sky Sports 1 Sweden were the more impressive of these Scandinavian rivals in the group part of the qualification process and have the more admired squad, ...

Republic of Ireland v Bosnia Friday 19:45 & Monday 19:45 Live on Sky Sports Odds To Qualify: Rep of Ireland, 2.00 Bosnia 1.80 The Rep of Ireland players convene in Dublin today for seven days that will decide whether the first two years of Martin O'Neill 's tenure are remembered as a success or a failure. Bosnia are the opposition in the two legged play-off that will decide which nation books their place for next summer's European Championships. O'Neill was satisfied enough at the draw in Switzerland as he had identified Ukraine as the worst case scenario. Hungary were the best case scenario. Bosnia were somewhere in the middle and the odds reflect the widely held belief that this is an evenly matched encounter . It's hard to argue with the Balkan nation being the slight favourites at 1.80 in the To Qualify market (Sportsbook). They qualified for last summer's World Cup in Brazil and have generally performed at a higher...

Spain v England Friday 13th November, 19:45 Live on ITV1 Spain The current European champions head into this friendly with England in the sort of nick we've all been accustomed to over the last seven years or so; they qualified handily for next summer's tournament, losing just one game along the way and conceding only three times in the entire process to finish five points clear of second-placed Slovakia . That said, the Spanish aren't without their problems. The current squad named by manager Vicente del Bosque is notable by its lack of real goalscorers at international level, and with David Silva currently injured the most prolific player in the 23 is Chelsea's Pedro, who is enduring a difficult start to his career in the Premier League. In addition to the Silva injury, Real Madrid's Isco will also miss this game after withdrawing from the squad due to a muscle injury, as will Sergio Ramos. England This is the first of several 'hard'...