Rangers v PSV Eindhoven tips: Champions League best bets and preview
Rangers face Eredivisie side PSV in the next round of Champions League qualifying. Tom Carnduff picks out his best bets.
Football betting tips: Champions League
1pt Rangers to be winning at half-time at 9/4 (Sky Bet)
Rangers successfully overturned a two-goal deficit to progress against Royale Union Saint-Gilloise in the last round, but the visit of PSV will be a very tough test.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst's men managed to win 3-0 in 90 minutes against the Belgian side, but PSV's start to the campaign has been near perfect as they have six points from two Eredivisie games and nine goals on their tally.
The hosts prepared for this game with a comfortable 4-0 home win over St. Johnstone and the Ibrox crowd will be key for their chances of progression again. It is vital they get a good first leg result if their path in Europe's top club competition is to continue.
Despite a good level of opposition, Rangers are currently slight favourites to win the game. PSV have had a strong start to the season, but they have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their five competitive outings so far.
While they did win, the Dutch side conceded two or more in three of those five. They have quality in attack but issues in defence - it's something that Rangers will have to exploit across the 90 minutes.
Even with them being the home side in the first leg, I'm happy to repeat last week's successful tip and back RANGERS TO BE LEADING AT HALF-TIME.
Situation does play a slight part but the Scottish side have been winning at the break in their last four European home contests. A point of interest is that they have also done so with a clean sheet in each.
Granted that they were looking to overturn first leg deficits in the last three but the game against Red Star was the first leg and they held that comfortable lead at the break.
The away form is a concern and that may hold them back when it comes to long-term 'success' in this competition but for this bet, they have a proven recent track record of landing it.
The best price of 9/4 looks too generous when we take the above record into account, while prices of 11/5 elsewhere also represent good value.
Whether they go onto win the game or not is something that we don't have to worry about - backing Rangers to be leading at the break looks another solid selection.
Rangers v PSV best bets and score prediction
- 1pt Rangers to be winning at half-time at 9/4 (Sky Bet)
Score prediction: Rangers 1-1 PSV (Sky Bet odds: 11/2)
Odds correct at 1030 BST (15/08/22)
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