Matt Holt v Paul King: Who’ll win our first Twitter tipster battle?

We’re putting two of the Twittersphere’s top tipsters, Matt Holt and Paul King, against each other in a battle to see who can return the greatest profit for you.

If you aren’t familiar with the pair, Paul made his name tipping American Football and Basketball, while Matt initially gained recognition through his ability to sniff out a winner on Tennis.

While their areas of expertise are very different, one thing they have in common is the love of a good football bet.

With that in mind, we’re asking them to pick five bets each on the week’s Champions League and Premier League fixtures to see who is really the best.

The rules are simple. Each tipster will pick four bets to stake £10 on and one bet to stake £30, with the only condition being that at least one of the bets must be above Evens. There will be no 1/5 shots here.

This week Paul has gone for longer odds while Matt has played it safer with odds-on selections.

Whose approach will reign supreme?

PAUL KING (@PaulKingTips)

Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid

First team to score 2 goals – Real Madrid

£10 stake @ 15/8

Borussia Dortmund have been in scintillating form of late and while Real Madrid have been a little bit hit and miss, they have still managed to net twice in four of their last five away matches.

With that in mind, I like the 15/8 that Ladbrokes are offering on Real Madrid bagging two before Dortmund do. I’m expecting goals in this one, so here’s hoping Ronaldo & Co get theirs first.

Arsenal v Basel

Goal bands – 2 or 3 total goals

£10 stake @ 11/10

Seven of Arsenal’s last 10 Champions League games have finished with either two or three goals, so I think 11/10 is a reasonable enough price to back the same happening again as they host Basel.

The Swiss outfit are a decent side and have pulled off European upsets against English teams in the past, so I think I’d rather go for 2-3 total goals than risk something like a handicapped Arsenal win.

Dinamo Zagreb v Juventus

Juventus to win 2-0

£10 stake @ 11/2

It’s difficult to base anything on Juventus’ poor away form in the Champions League, as their level of opposition has been significantly higher in recent years.

No disrespect to Dinamo Zagreb but they aren’t anywhere near the level of Juventus’ previous opponents – Bayern Munich, Man City, Real Madrid, Dortmund and Sevilla.

With that in mind I’m going to take a stab at a reasonably comfortable away win, and in the interest of beating Matt’s profit total I’m going to go for the 2-0 rather than the safer ‘win to nil’ or -1 handicap markets.

Ludogorets v PSG

PSG to score in both halves

£30 stake @ 6/5

Ludogorets have a habit of scoring in Europe – even against the big sides. With that in mind I’m going to avoid backing heavy favourites PSG to win but I definitely fancy their chances to score a couple of goals.

Over the past year, whenever the French side have scored away from home in Europe, they have scored in both halves. It happened against Chelsea, Shakhtar and Malmo, so I see no reason why they won’t do it against Ludogorets too.

This is going to be my big stake for the gameweek, so I’ll be keeping fingers and toes crossed.

Atletico Madrid v Bayern Munich

First team to score 2 goals – Bayern Munich

£10 stake @ 9/4

This may seem risky considering Atletico beat Bayern 1-0 not so long ago, in a match where they tactically outclassed the German giants.

Bayern just couldn’t break down Diego Simeone’s defensive cage, but I have a funny feeling it’s going to be slightly different this time.

When you consider that they have hit two or more goals in 11 of their last 14 Champions League games, the 9/4 about Bayern scoring twice before Atletico is actually really tempting.

MATT HOLT (@MattHoltTips)

FC Copenhagen v Club Brugge

Copenhagen to Win Either Half

£10 stake @ 4/9

Copenhagen are unbeaten in their last 20 games in all competitions and haven’t lost at home since August 2015 – a run of 28 games. They’ve also won a half in 14 of their last 15 home games.

Club Brugge have won one and lost six of their last eight Champions League away games. They were beaten 3-0 at home by Leicester in the opening gameweek whilst Copenhagen held Porto to a draw away from home with 10 men.

Leicester v Porto

Both Teams to Score

£10 @ 8/11

Leicester kicked off their first ever Champions League campaign with a resounding victory in Belgium.

The Foxes have scored 10 goals in their last five games and have only failed to find the net at home once in their last 14 games at the King Power Stadium.

Porto have only failed to score once away from home in the Champions League since December 2013, as well as scoring in 14 of their last 15 competitive games.

Sporting Lisbon v Legia Warsaw

Sporting Lisbon/Sporting Lisbon HT/FT

£10 @ 6/4 

Sporting were unlucky to lose away at Real Madrid (how often can you say that?) in their opening game of this season’s Champions League and will be looking to take that frustration out on a Legia side that was hit for SIX at home by Borussia Dortmund.

Sporting have won their last eight competitive home games and have been leading at half-time in all of those. Legia have started their domestic season remarkably poorly, picking up just 10 points in 10 games.

Borussia Monchengladbach v FC Barcelona

Over 2.5 Goals

£10 @ 4/9

Both of these sides are usually great for goals. Gladbach lost 4-0 away at City in the opening gameweek whilst Barcelona battered Celtic 7-0. There have been 32 goals in Barcelona’s last seven games and 30 goals in Gladbach’s last eight.

Only one of the last 11 competitive games at Borussia-Park has gone under 2.5 goals, while Barca’s last five games in Germany have yielded 19 goals.

Celtic v Manchester City

Over 2.5 Goals

£30 @ 4/9

Celtic have played eight games at home so far this season, seven of those have gone over 2.5 goals and 38 goals have been scored in those games. The game that went under was a League Cup match against Alloa in which The Bhoys had 29 shots.

Manchester City have only had one of their 10 games go under 2.5 this season, a 1-0 win against Steaua in which they rested most of their first team having won 5-0 in Bucharest. Their other nine games have seen a total of 35 goals.

I’m going with my big stake on this one, and I’m hoping that my safer approach across my selections will return a greater profit than Paul’s higher odds selections.

Join in the conversation via @Ladbrokes and @TheOddsBible!

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing