Napoli v Dortmund: Expect goals between two prolific teams
Published:In one of the games of the Champions League opening round on paper, two teams in ominous domestic form collide in the shape of Napoli and Borussia Dortmund, and it may be worth exploiting goal markets rather than trying to guess the eventual winner.
The current leaders of Serie A and the Bundesliga face off in the exceedingly tricky-looking Group F which also contains Arsenal, and it’s a difficult one to call.
New Napoli manager Rafa Benitez has set about orchestrating three straight league wins from his first games in charge, while Jurgen Klopp’s beaten finalists of 2012/13 have not only defeated Bayern Munich in the German Super Cup, but the 6-2 pasting they just doled out to Hamburg represented their fifth-straight league win.
What we have here is two sides brimming with attacking talent and therein the potential for a goal-fest, or on the other hand two sides which could quite easily cancel each other out.
However, given that both sides have averagely scored exactly three goals per game leading into this one, the possibility of a low-scoring contest is diminished.
Both teams to score looks as good a place as any to start therefore, with Ladbrokes offering 13/20 that each goalkeeper will be forced into ball-retrieval duties.
The over 2.5 goals at 4/5 is another which feels primed to be profitable given the combined ferocity of the attacks on display.
Meanwhile, given all nine of Napoli’s goals have been pooled between three players to date; Marek Hamsik (4), Jose Callejon (3) and Gonzalo Higuain (2) the odds on any of these three at 5/2, 5/2 and 13/8 to score any time, are worth considering.
Among the visitors arsenal of potential net finders are a whole host of suspects, including the most obvious Robert Lewandowski, who has netted five already this term, while registering last on three of those occasions; the Pole is 5/1 to have the last word here.
With four and three goals respectively this season Marco Reus at 11/5 and Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5/2 also stand out as value to bag anytime for Dortmund.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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