When They're Playing In Your Town

Evening, y'all. It's been a while and all that, but here's a new entry from me. Various stuff you'd expect to see and some random stuff too

Good Old Tipping
Let's start with a look at this week's Champions League quarter-final 2nd legs, beginning with Bayern Munchen v Manchester United. Firstly, it's probably best to disregard the respective results of both teams at the weekend- both made wholesale changes to their starting XIs to what they're likely to field on Wednesday (plus the intricate interplay between MUFC's playmakers Juan Mata & Shinji Kagawa will most likely be shelved in favour of a contain & counter approach). Make no mistake, though- in the 1st leg United got at Bayern with an approach that, while not exactly expansive, was effective to a certain extent. Witness also Pep Guardiola's tetchy and frankly bizarre exchange with Guardian journalist Jamie Jackson in the post match press conference. One has to wonder, though, if Bayern will now find an extra gear to shift into- even with Javi Martinez & Bastian Schweinsteiger missing through suspension, replacements of the quality of Dante & Mario Gotze should mean they won't be too sorely missed. United can trouble Bayern, even if qualification may be beyond them. The bet here methinks in Both Teams to Score at 11/10 general. Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid & Barcelona are also tied at 1-1 after the 1st leg of their tie. These two have been extremely closely matched in their 4 meetings so far, with all 4 ending in draws (a 1-1 and an 0-0 at both the Vicente Calderon and the Camp Nou). Another low-scoring match looks on the cards here, with under 2.5 goals being the call at 4/5 general

A Lottery That's Actually Not A Lottery
The Grand National on Saturday was fun, wasn't it? I certainly thought so, although that's hardly surprising when you consider that, for the 2nd year running, I had picked the winner. How do I do it? Simple, really- I treat it in much the same way as any other horse race, doing my research, studying form and the like. It's important to remember when dealing with the National, though, that at over 4 miles, it's considerably longer than almost all of the races the horses will have competed, therefore form alone isn't always beneficial. For example, my selection of Pineau de Re had competed in a 3 mile race at Cheltenham last month and finished 3rd. Not much, on its own, but the horse actually finished extremely strongly, hinting at there being plenty more stamina in his legs, as well as the discipline to stay in the chasing pack early on, before showing a turn in pace near the end- none of these qualities were demonstrated in particular abundance by any of the supposed favourites such as Teaforthree and Monbeg Dude. I'll try and remember and post this in the run up to next year's race

Myth Debunking
Time for me to clear something up. It seems a few of you fell for my Facebook April Fool's Day declaration of support for the No campaign. Let me assure you that I shall be doing no such thing- I'll be keeping my opinion between me and the ballot box

And Finally....
I only caught extra-time and the pre-match reports of trouble in the Grassmarket, but yesterday's Ramsdens Cup Final brought back memories of my time at the League Cup Final with some Aberdeen fans last month. Similar to yesterday, the match itself was a fairly turgid affair, yet the clearly nervous 40,000 Aberdeen fans relentless continued to back their side, with a grand total of 0 arrests, in compete contrast to yesterday. There's a mental strength about this Aberdeen side that's getting them some big results where previously they would fail. It will be fascinating to monitor their progress in the next few years, especially as they will almost certainly be embarking on a Europa League campaign next season



"YES! YES! YES"!