Champions League Betting Preview Tuesday Part 1

There is some high-quality Champions League action upon us for Thursday as the latest round of fixtures are set to kick off across Europe. All the big names are set to take to the pitch and a few of them find themselves already up against it, with Manchester City in particular needing a result from their match up against Ajax on Wednesday.

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The early fixture involves, as always, a Russian side and you'll find Spartak Moscow playing host to the favoured visitors from Benfica. You can expect these ones to always be a tougher on the visitors than the home team – particularly as we get into the colder months. This is a good opportunity to back the home side, or even the draw, as these types of matches are difficult to navigate with the immense travel time compounding things.

Benfica trade as the 8/5 favourites with Spartak priced at 19/10 and the draw listed at a solid 21/10. The draw is likely more of an in-play wager, however.

For the 19:45 fixtures, we have Chelsea away to Shakhtar Donetsk – a match that may wind up playing out a bit similarly to how the aforementioned one worked out. You'll find Chelsea considered to be the underdogs for this one with a 15/8 price putting them behind the hosts, who are available at a 6/4 price.

The 11/5 draw shows that this one is a bit of a toss-up, but you reckon it's mostly to do with who notches the opening goal. You'll find that Henrikh Mkhtaryan is considered to be the favoured selection to score that opening goal and he's trading at 11/2 to get things off to a good start in front of the home fans. He's at 6/4 to grab an anytime goal.

Look to Fernando Torres to get most of the attention from Chelsea punters looking to back a goalscorer. He's certainly in better form than he was last year and you can back him at 7/4 if you like him to notch an anytime goal. This may be one of those matches when he puts the team on his back so an 8/1 price on a brace isn't a bad deal at all.