Football Bet of the Day: Swiss to roll over

PSV v Basel
Tuesday 23 July, 19:00

We made a hot start in Iceland, as Kópavogur beat odds-on favourites Hafnarfjordur 2-0 in the Urvalsdeild last night. It’s just occurred to me that I should’ve used the headline “Kop a load of this” but you can’t have everything in life.

We move on to something a touch more glamorous now. It’s still July, but if you stay super-quiet and listen really carefully, you can hear the strains of the Champions League anthem. PSV are up against Basel, and I believe the hosts will build a strong first-leg advantage.

Although PSV have lost some key players like left-back Angelino and goal machine Luuk de Jong, they have retained Mexican wing wizard Hirving Lozano (at least for now) and the acquisition of Portuguese speedster Bruma from RB Leipzig should prove to be very astute. There is also buzz about young striker Sam Lammers, who is back after a strong loan spell at Heerenveen.

PSV were pipped by Ajax in the Eredivisie title race, but their home form was still hugely impressive. Mark van Bommel’s side won nine of their last ten home matches of last season, and in last season’s UCL qualifiers they hammered BATE Borisov 3-0 in Eindhoven.

Basel are not the team that once dominated Swiss football, and they have now finished behind champions Young Boys in back-to-back seasons. Last term, they finished 20 points adrift of top spot. In Europe last season, FCB were hammered 5-1 on aggregate by Greek side PAOK in the UCL qualifiers, and then slipped out of the Europa League against Cypriot outfit Apollon.

Early-season clashes like this can be tricky, but I think PSV have the quality to overcome a Basel side that was in decline last season. I’ll back the hosts -1.0 on the Asian Handicap at [1.95].