League football across Europe has kicked off in thrilling fashion over the past few days, marking the start of the new 2024/25 season across the continent. With fans returning to stadiums to support their teams, new signings eager to impress and old stars fighting to remain in the side, the action has been intense, setting the tone for another exciting campaign.
The majority of the opening round fixtures across Europe’s top leagues have already been played over the weekend and the final matches of matchday one are set to unfold later today. In this article, we’re going to take a look at a selection of these games and pick out our top tips and booking codes (all odds at time of writing):
Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur
Newly promoted Leicester City face the difficult task of taking on a Tottenham Hotspur side that will be vying for UEFA Champions League football this season in their opening match of the 2024/25 season.
Leicester are one of the favourites to get relegated at the end of the campaign, bringing in very little experienced English Premier League talent and losing one of last season’s top performers, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Tottenham will be coming into their second campaign under Ange Postecoglou, meaning the players should fully understand the tactics employed by the boss. Spurs have made a number of quality additions during the summer so far, including Dominic Solanke as a proven striker, and they should be confident of going one step further than last year and securing a top-four place.
Despite Leicester having the home advantage, where the fans will be desperate to push their side to a victory, Spurs are clearly the stronger team and should pick up a comfortable victory.
Tottenham Hotspur to win by 2 goals, 4.25
Villarreal vs Atletico Madrid
Villarreal had a fairly disappointing 2023/24 season, failing to qualify for any European competition through the league standings for the first time since placing 14th in 2018/19. They dropped from a fifth-placed finish in 2022/23 to eighth last year, four points behind the top seven, but they will be determined to fight for Europe again this year.
Atletico Madrid also faced a difficult season at times, especially through February and March when they dropped points in five out of seven La Liga matches, suffering three defeats in that time. Diego Simeone’s men still finished a significant eight points ahead of fifth-placed Athletic Bilbao, securing another season in the Champions League, but they will be desperate to return to a title race for the first time since lifting the trophy in 2020/21.
We expect this game to be an extremely hard-fought affair between two sides aiming to push up the table in comparison to last term, but we do believe Atletico Madrid will prove too strong at the end of the 90 minutes and secure all three points.
Atletico Madrid to win, 2.00
Juventus vs Como
A positive campaign for Juventus saw them climb from a disappointing seventh-place finish in 2022/23 – due to the 10-point deduction they faced – into third in 2023/24, their highest league finish since winning the title in 2019/20. New boss Thiago Motta has had a mixed pre-season with the club ahead of a campaign where Juventus will be hoping to be involved in the battle for the title again, but they will be confident of an opening day victory against a newly promoted side.
Como were unexpectedly promoted last year, impressively finishing second in the league after placing 13th the year prior, earning them a place back in the top flight. While they have made some quality signings ahead of the new campaign, most notably Raphael Varane, they failed to impress in their first competitive match of the season against Serie B side Sampdoria in the Coppa Italia – being held to a 1-1 draw and eventually losing on penalties.
With Juventus also holding the home advantage, as well as clearly having the better quality throughout their squad, we expect a heavy victory in the home side’s favour here.
Juventus to win & over 2.5 goals, 2.28
Best Booking Code @19.55:
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1 Comment
by Nelson
I like the games