The Safety Net: Atletico Madrid must outclass Celtic
Published:The reasons why Atletico Madrid should beat Celtic in the Europa League have already been briefly mentioned in the Weekly Accumulator, but they look such certain winners that they have been picked as today’s safety net bet.
European football has already been unkind to us this week as Barcelona let the safety net bet down on Tuesday when they conceded an injury-time equaliser to AC Milan.
However, not to be deterred, we are back for a second bite of the cherry and Atletico Madrid look like one of the bets of the season, let alone the day, against Celtic.
Celtic’s away record in Europe under the guidance of Neil Lennon is particularly bad, as they have lost all three games.
These defeats have been 2-0, 4-0 and most recently 3-1 against FC Sion in the final play-off round ahead of the group stages of the Europa League, but they edged through after the Swiss outfit had to forfeit the return leg because they had picked an illegible player.
In fact, Tony Mowbray is the only Celtic manager to win a European away game in the past eight years.
On paper Atletico Madrid look far stronger than Sion, most notably because they can call on £35m summer signing Radamel Falcao in attack.
Falcao was the top scorer in the competition last season as he fired Porto to the trophy and will be eager to impress against Celtic as he still waits for his first goal for his new club.
Atletico Madrid may have sold Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan in the summer, but in Jose Antonio Reyes, Eduardo Salvio and Arda Turan they certainly have enough creativity to brush aside Celtic.
There is every chance that Celtic’s defeat will be heavy, with Lennon failing to make best use of his get out of jail free card.
Atletico Madrid are 4/9 in the Europa League odds to beat Celtic and we will be staking £45 on this result to fulfil our aim of making £20 each day.
Current Status
Bank: £389
Today’s stake: £45
Best case scenario: £409
Worst case scenario: £344
Last Safety Net bet: Barcelona to beat AC Milan @ 1/4
Wealth warning: although we are confident the safety net bet’s strategy will be profitable over a period of time, the nature of sport means we cannot guarantee you will win every single time.
