CSKA Moscow v Tottenham Hotspur Betting Tips

These two sides sit second in their respective leagues and, whilst CSKA Moscow are the favourites for the Russian Premier League title, Tottenham Hotspur are considered title outsiders in England.

Like Spurs, CSKA are playing in a new stadium for the Champions League this season. Built for the 2018 World Cup, CSKA Arena is the Army Men’s new 30,00 capacity arena, however, attendances at CSKA’s new home have been disappointing. Whilst the debut match against Terek Grozny drew at crowd of over 25,000, the following match against Krasnodar – no doubt a more attractive prospect – saw the arena under half full. Hopefully this Champions League match against a big European club will bring people in.

On the pitch Leonid Slutsky’s side have looked good in recent weeks and notched three wins in four league matches. On top of this they managed to recover from being 2-0 down away at Bayer Leverkusen to draw 2-2. This represented a complete contrast to CSKA’s recent European campaigns, where they have looked boring and lifeless, as the away side showed great character to take a point back home. After being tipped to finish bottom of the group, this precious point away in Germany gives CSKA a fighting chance of making at least third spot and thus earning Europa League knock-out qualification.

Of course Slutsky’s side were pretty much forced into changing tact and attacking Leverkusen after they went two goals down after just 15 minutes. They managed to recover from their deficit after just 38 minutes and from then on showed little sign of taking all three points back to Moscow. It will be interesting to see how CSKA approach different scenarios in the game such as not conceding early or even taking the lead.

Tottenham have won four on the bounce in the Premier League and it is only Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side, with their 100% record, who sit above Spurs, showing just what good form Mauricio Pochettino’s side are in.

Much was made of the fact Tottenham are playing the Champions League home matches at Wembley after their 2-1 loss at ‘home’ to Monaco. The atmosphere with the fans was different whilst the players surely did not feel as if they were on their own turf when they traveled to the home of football.

After their defeat on matchday one, you get the feeling that Spurs need to pick up maximum points at CSKA Arena in order to give themselves a good chance of making the knockout rounds of Europe’s premier competition.

I am not sure how CSKA, who have a pretty poor record in the Champions League over recent years, will cope against a Tottenham side who will be highly motivated to ensure that they get the vital three points. With this in mind I have gone for a straight Tottenham win at a profitable 7/5.

I also fancy Tottenham to score more than at least few goals with their attacking style and array of forward players in form right now. CSKA will be on the back foot for most of, it not all, of the game and Spurs should be able to take advantage of this. The fact you can get on this selection at 5/4 means it’s certainly worth going for here.

Finally I would go for an anytime goalscorer bet. With the home side likely to be sitting deep, Tottenham’s strikers (minus Harry Kane) may find themselves crowded out by defenders. This means the onus falls on creative players such as Christian Eriksen to get on the ball and dictate play. We saw in the League Cup match against Gillingham that he is capable of all kinds of goals, both long range belters as well as cute finishes. The Dane looks really confident right now and I have a feeling he could find the back of the net in a convincing Spurs victory.

See more Champions League tips here.