FC Porto to show they're European Hotshots

Wednesday sees the end of the first half of the fixtures for the Champions League group stage & there's also a fixture in the Championship. We were looking like having a treble up on Tuesday night with CSKA Moscow & Ipswich Town successful but Leeds United conceded to Coventry City very late on to ruin that, for Wednesday we're going for just the two selections & feel confident of getting the double in the bank.

 (FC Porto's Hulk - Apoel Nicosia won't like him when he's angry)

FC Porto are one of the better sides in the Champions League currently & they should be backed to take care of the Cypriot side Apoel Nicosia. Porto went unbeaten in the league in 2010-11 & won the Europa League, they lost great striker Falcao to Atletico Madrid for 40 million Euros but retained nearly all of their other players including the Brazilian Hulk & have invested in having an overall stronger squad. Apoel Nicosia have started phenomenally well in this competition with a home win against Zenit St Petersburg & drawing away to Shakhtar Donetsk. Shakhtar dominated that game & Apoel will do well to hold out against the attacking flair of this Porto side, Porto need to win this to put them in a good position to qualify & they won't want to take any chances here, back them to win at Evens with a -1 goal handicap, Apoel's fairytale start can have a very unhappy ending.

In the Championship Sven-Goran Erikksson's Leicester City side take on Watford at home in a match they must see as the sort of game they should win comfortably if they are to live up to their tag as pre-season favourites. Leicester have spent heavily & have undoubtedly improved in a defensive capability, after a slow start they hadn't conceded in 4 games before losing away to Birmingham on Sunday. Leicester have however looked weaker going forwards with only two players with more than a single goal, Darius Vassell & David Nugent, they looked to be changing that a little with the impressive 4-0 win against Derby & if Erikksson can instil confidence in the team they are very dangerous. Watford have been pretty poor this season with just two league wins at Reading & home to Millwall, they've scored just twice in their last 5 games with forwards Iwelumo & Deeney having failed to score in 8 & 10 games respectively. After years of flirting with relegation this could be the year when they go down if they don't start to improve quickly. Overall this lloks too good an opportunity for Leicester to pass up, with defender & captain Matt Mills missing through suspension they may want to take a more attacking style & that should see them win this one at odds of 8/13.

Selections:
FC Porto to beat Apoel Nicosia with a -1 goal handicap at Evens (several)
Leicester City to beat Watford at 8/13