Champions League Betting: PAOK v Ajax

Champions League / Tobias Gourlay / 03 August 2010 / Leave a Comment

Jollies Ajax: It's only right Martin Jol's side are favourites to make the Champions League play-offs.

"The four-time European champions will surely not be so profligate in the second leg on Wednesday evening."

Ajax can write another chapter in Greek mythology with a win over PAOK on Wednesday night, says Tobias Gourlay.

Lucky in the first half, plucky in the second half, PAOK Thessaloniki managed a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Champions League (CL) third qualifying round tie with Ajax. Luis Suarez gave the Dutch side the lead within a quarter of an hour of kick-off, but then they spurned many chances to double their advantage and were eventually pegged back by Vladimir Ilic's 73rd-minute equaliser. The four-time European champions will surely not be so profligate in the second leg on Wednesday evening.

PAOK haven't played at this level of European competition since 2004, when they lost a qualifying tie to Maccabi Tel Aviv, going down 3-0 at home. Since then, they are W1-D2-L3 at the Toumba Stadium in the UEFA Cup/Europa League. All of this is totally new to Pavlos Dermitzakis, the coach who only joined the club six days before the first leg.

His counterpart from the Netherlands, Martin Jol, is much more experienced. His team went unbeaten on their travels in the Europa League last season (W3-D2-L0) and the club has a strong W7-D2-L2 away record in the UEFA Cup/Europa League since last playing in the CL three years ago. The odds-against price on them winning this match in 90 minutes, and thus qualifying for this season's CL play-offs, is generous, but there's value too in their [1.73] To Qualify price, if you're worried they'll need extra-time or penalties.

Best Bet: Back Ajax at [2.1] to beat PAOK Thessaloniki