Weekend acca predictions: Five teams to back across Europe
Recommended bets
- WSG Swarovski Tirol to beat GAK 1902
- Hamburger to beat Hertha BSC
- Both Teams To Score Yes - Porto vs Gil Vicente
- Royal Antwerp FC -1 vs Sint Truiden
- Go Ahead Eagles to beat Fortuna Sittard
The big leagues are starting to return across Europe as a new season of top-flight football gets underway in the Netherlands and Portugal this weekend.
Ahead of the games we have assembled an acca featuring games from Austria’s Bundesliga, Germany’s Bundesliga 2, the Primeira Division in Portugal, the Belgian First Division A and the Dutch Eredivisie.
Heavyweights Porto and fallen giants Hamburg are among our selections, with the five-fold paying out at odds of 36/1.
Saturday, 4pm
Tirol have made a strong start to the season in Austria after a comfortable road win in the cup preceded another away success at Altach in their league opener.
On Saturday they play their first home fixtures of the new campaign and they can make it three wins in as many games against promoted GAK 1902.
Grazer needed extra time in their own cup assignment as they edged out fourth-tier outfit Atus Velden. GAK did perform better in their Bundesliga opener as they went down 3-2 to Red Bull Salzburg, but in truth they were perhaps lucky to only lose by just one goal and that was a home game — they may find this trip to a Tirol side who have started strongly a step too far.
Saturday 7.30pm
Hamburg finished fourth in Germany’s Bundesliga 2 last season and missed out on promotion, as city rivals St Pauli went on to claim the title.
A return to the top flight has to be the target for HSV this term and they sent out a bit of a statement in their curtain-raiser with a 2-1 win against relegated FC Koln.
Hamburg finished 10 points ahead of Hertha last season and did the league double over the Berlin outfit. The visitors slipped to a disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Paderborn in their own season opener and look set for a second-successive loss when they head to Volksparkstadion.
Saturday, 8.30pm
Porto had the best defensive record in Portugal’s Primeira Liga last season, but towards the end of the campaign they started to show a few signs of vulnerability at the back, with just two of their 13 clean sheets coming in their final nine league games.
The Dragoes faced Sporting in the Super Cup last weekend and won 4-3 in extra time, which suggests they have not completely resolved those defensive issues over the summer.
Saturday’s visitors Gil Vicente hit 42 goals in 34 games last season and have a reasonable record against Porto, with one win, one draw and one loss in the last three meetings. Both teams have scored in each of those three games and the odds-against price on goals at both ends has real appeal here.
Sunday, 3pm
Antwerp will probably have been a little disappointed by their sixth-place finish last season, as they failed to mount a serious title defence, and things have not gone fully to plan at the start of the new campaign either, with one defeat and one win from their two games to date.
The visit of a poor Sint-Truiden outfit on Sunday looks like a chance for The Great Old to make a bit of a statement and they should be able to win by at least two goals.
De Kanaries failed to record a single shot on target in their opener at Anderlecht but somehow managed to avoid a hammering, losing 1-0. They were crushed 4-1 at home by Charleroi in their second assignment and could be set for another heavy defeat this weekend.
Sunday, 1.30pm
Go Ahead Eagles only finished one place above Fortuna Sittard last season but there was an eight-point gap between the two.
The hosts have had a chance to tune-up competitively ahead of the new season with European qualifiers and they are facing a side who travelled poorly last season.
Sittard lost 10 of their 17 league trips, winning just two, and it is hard to see them getting a result in this season opener.
