ALEX CROOK PREVIEW: Champions League Gameweek Two

Star Sports football ambassador ALEX CROOK previews the second gameweek of the Champions League league phase…

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ARSENAL v LILLE 🇫🇷
Tuesday, 8pm, TNT Sports

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Arsenal returned to winning ways with a hard-fought 2-1 success at home to Leeds at the weekend.

While not at their best, Mikel Arteta’s charges showed plenty of character to come from behind and snatch the points thanks to a late Bruno Guimaraes strike.

The Gunners are bidding for a 14th successive league phase victory, so it is no surprise they are big odds-on favourites to pick up all three points.

Lille, second in the French league, have won nine of their last 11 away games, but were beaten by Betis on matchday 1.

Last season’s runner-up Arsenal have not been at their defensive best in their past couple of Premier League games but have kept clean sheets in all but six of their last 24 European games at fortress Emirates.

Arsenal to win to nil and maintain their brilliant run of Champions League form is a 10/11 shout with starsports.bet and looks pretty bulletproof to me.

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🇪🇸 ATLETICO MADRID v MANCHESTER UNITED 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
Tuesday, 8pm, Amazon Prime Video

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The pressure is mounting on Michael Carrick as United head to the Spanish capital having been held to a 1-1 draw at home by ten-man Tottenham on Saturday.

The Red Devils have now picked up a meagre six points from their opening six Premier League outings, with their sole victory coming at home to newly-promoted Ipswich.

United were given a gentle reintroduction to life at Europe’s top table as they thrashed Azerbaijan minnows Sabah 4-0 at Old Trafford, but this is a real acid test of whether they are truly ready to compete with the elite.

Atleti were beaten by Liverpool at Anfield in their opening game, continuing a poor recent record against English opposition.

Diego Simeone’s men have won their last four La Liga games and have only Barcelona ahead of them in the table.

However, Atleti’s class of 2026 is a far cry from the defensive mean machine that saw them reach the final of this competition in 2014 and again two years later.

United also have defensive injury issues with Luke Shaw once again unavailable due to injury so I would expect plenty of goalmouth action.

The one bright spot from an otherwise disappointing day against Spurs was the impact from the bench of summer signing Carlos Baleba.

While not renowned for his goalscoring, Baleba can come up with the odd spectacular strike and is 25/1 with starsports.bet to mark his Champions League debut by scoring first.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 MANCHESTER CITY v PSG 🇫🇷
Wednesday, 8pm, TNT Sports 1 HD

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The eyes of the world will be on the Etihad on Wednesday as ‘sham’ club Manchester City host European champions PSG in what some are labelling the state-owned club derby.

City’s first game since being found guilty of 114 of their 115 financial breaches on Sunday resulted in a resounding 3-0 victory at ten-man Liverpool.

Forgetting their off-field issues, the home side are in rampant form, and the doomsday scenario for Premier League chiefs that Enzo Maresca’s side go on and win the title is very much alive.

City are also among the favourites to win this competition for only the second time in their history and will no doubt be out to notch another statement victory to try and silence their critics.

PSG ran out 4-2 winners when these two last met in the league phase two seasons ago, but find themselves down in sixth place in Ligue 1 after an underwhelming start to the domestic season.

Despite enjoying an 11-match unbeaten run against clubs from the Premier League, I fancy City to come out on top against the holders in front of what is sure to be a very vociferous and defiant home crowd.

City to win at 11/10 with starsports.bet looks pretty decent to me.

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ASTON VILLA v FENERBAHCE 🇹🇷
Wednesday, 8pm, TNT Sports

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Villa’s wait for a first home victory of the season goes on as they host big-spending Fenerbahce on Wednesday.

Unai Emery’s men had to settle for a point at Villa Park on Saturday as they drew 2-2 with Brentford, in a game they fleetingly led late on.

Having sold the bulk of last season’s Europa League winning team, it is clearly still a work in progress, but I saw enough signs against the Bees to suggest Nicolas Jackson will get plenty of goals.

Villa have quietly put together an impressive home run in Europe of 13 matches unbeaten while their visitors are winless eight Champions League games.

Fenerbahce are the leading scorers in Turkey and will surely ask questions of Villa’s leaky defence.

My build-a-bet is Villa to win, both teams to score and Nicolas Jackson to score at any time and John McGinn to receive a card which returns 14/1 with starsports.bet.

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RECOMMENDED SELECTIONS
1⃣ BEST BET: Arsenal to win, both teams to score, no 2pts at 10/11 (⭐️ ? CLICK TO BET NOW)

2⃣ NEXT BEST: Manchester City to win 1.5pts at 11/10 (⭐️ ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
📊 BUILD-A-BET: Aston Villa to win, both teams to score, Nicolas Jackson to score at any time and John McGinn to receive a card 1pt at 14/1 (⭐️ ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
🎲 LONG SHOT: Carlos Baleba to score the first goal in Atletico Madrid v Manchester United 0.5pts at 25/1 (⭐️ ? CLICK TO BET NOW)

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ALEX’S PROFIT/LOSS (OCT 2026): +2.25 points

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