Celtic and Dynamo Kiev will look to protect commanding first-leg leads when the Champions League resumes on Wednesday ahead of the group stage draw for Europe’s premier club competition – which includes holders Chelsea as one of 22 automatic entrants – on August 30 in Monaco.
Celtic v Helsingborgs
Celtic 1/2 draw 3/1 Helsingborgs 6/1 – 90 minutes
Neil Lennon’s men have already chalked up two wins on the road in Europe this season to improve on an otherwise shambolic away record and must feel they have excellent claims of sending Helsingborgs packing.
The Hoops have lost only one of their last eight European games in Glasgow, winning six of them, and at the weekend continued their impressive start to the season with a 4-2 win at Inverness.
Wins are rare for the Allsvenskan side in the Champions League, although a 12-year absence from the competition offers little by way of a form guide, but a 3-1 weekend defeat by Djurgaden, for whom Erton Fejzullahu scored a hat-trick, will not have raised morale.
The Swedish side will have the edge in terms of match sharpness but Celtic have goals in them and the likes of Kris Commons (13/8), Victor Wanyama (9/2) and Anthony Watt (11/8) all appeal in the anytime scorer market for what should be a home win.
Dynamo Kiev v Borussia Monchengladbach
Dynamo Kiev 5/6 draw 12/5 Borussia Monchengladbach 10/3 – 90 minutes
Dynamo were runners-up in Ukraine last season and beat Feyenoord 3-1 on aggregate in the third qualifying round, so it comes as no shock to see them priced up at odds on because of a two-goal cushion from the first leg in Germany last week.
The home side looked under the pump when falling behind at Stadion im Borussia-Park but a goal from Andriy Yarmolenko put them in front before an own goal late on gave them a deserved win.
The is the first taste of European football for Monchengladbach since the 1996/97 Uefa Cup campaign, when they eliminated Arsenal before losing to AS Monaco in the second round.
A 2-1 win at home to Hoffenheim on the opening day of the new German domestic season will have lifted spirits but Dynamo have dropped just three points from a possible 21 in Ukraine and can brag about an incredibly strong home record which has seen them go 21 months without being beaten.
Nigeria striker Brown Ideye has started the season like a runaway train and the Dynamo Kiev/Dynamo Kiev double result could have legs here at 15/8.
In Wednesday’s other games, CFR Cluj take on FC Basel having become the first Romanian club to have won in Switzerland in Uefa competition, Spartak Moscow beat Fenerbahce 2-1 last week and are looking to advance to an 11th group stage campaign and Lille must overturn a 1-0 first-leg defeat by FC Copenhagen but have not won in their last four home European games.
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