Zenit St Petersburg v Borussia Dortmund Betting Tips

February 25, 2014 Thatsbettingtips Staff

Zenit St Petersburg play Borussia Dortmund in tonight’s first Champions League match and we have free football predictions and betting tips for the clash.

A stand-alone tie at 5pm Tuesday evening sees Russian champions Zenit take on last year’s Champion’s League runners-up Dortmund and there is no doubt who had the more impressive group stage, as the Germans finished top of Group F ahead of Arsenal, while Zenit only amassed six points; just enough to finish second behind Atletico Madrid.

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The Russian league’s winter break also works against Zenit here, as they have not played a competitive game since 11th December, with just a number of friendlies abroad to keep them ticking over. While they have no injury concerns and are fresh, it could also work against them if they are rusty and not able to get up to speed against top class opposition.

As for Dortmund, they are missing a number of key players with Sven Bender, Ilkay Gundogan and Neven Subotic sidelined, Marco Reus only just back fit and a doubt over Mats Hummels. They also come into this on the back of a 3-0 hammering against relegation threatened Hamburg, leaving their Bundesliga chances in ruins and meaning it is hard to bet on Borussia Dortmund for tonight's football betting tips.

A trip to Russia is difficult enough without such problems and not many teams leave with a win. While I see Dortmund as favourites to win the overall tie, Zenit have been able to focus on this game for months and I think they will at least achieve a draw from the game (37/13), just like their last four home games have ended in stalemate. However, I can see at least a goal scored for each side with Dortmund’s record of only keeping one clean sheet so far in the CL.

With Zenit raring to go I’m sure they’ll spring out of the traps and attack strongly looking for the lead. While they only scored five goals in the group stage, they have attacking talent such as Aleksandr Kerzhakov who is now the top scorer from former Soviet republics with 28 goals over his career. He’s 11/4 to score at some point and a tempting 9/1 to strike first, while Danny has scored 13 this season and is also deadly at set pieces; he can be backed at 3/1.

The key for Dortmund will be to bring an away goal back to Germany, and with their record of scoring late goals (five in the last 15 minutes of games so far in this CL campaign), I can see them taking advantage of a tiring Zenit. Looking at the Last Goalscorer odds for the game, Robert Lewandowski is an obvious candidate at 9/2 while Pierre Aubameyang is also a threat; he’s struck six goals in his last seven games with 13 in 21 overall this season. (11/2)