OCT 29: EUROPEAN FOOTBALL BETTING PREVIEW

NAPOLI coach Rafael Benitez has urged his team to build on their weekend demolition of Verona when they visit Atalanta on Wednesday.

The Azzurri signalled for the first time this season in Sunday's 6-2 rout they have the makings of a team that can challenge for the Scudetto.

Sunday's victory was Napoli's fourth of the campaign and lifted Benitez's side to seventh place, eight points adrift of leaders Juventus. Gonzalo Higuain netted a hat-trick at the weekend and Napoli are a Super Single contender 19-20 with Betfred against a side who lave lost five of their last six.

Juve head into their midweek encounter at Genoa still unbeaten and in buoyant mood. The Turin giants bounced back from last week's 1-0 defeat to Olympiakos in the Champions League with a 2-0 home triumph against Palermo on Sunday.

Goals from Arturo Vidal and Fernando Llorente allowed Juve to regain their three-point advantage at the top of the standings after second-placed Roma were held to a goalless draw by Sampdoria in Genoa on Saturday. Juve are 8-15 with William Hill at Genoa and could be on the Top Treble.

Roma host promoted Cesena on Wednesday while fourth-placed Sampdoria travel to the San Siro to face Inter Milan. Samp are unbeaten and take on an Inter outfit that won for the first time in four games in all competitions when they edged 10-man Cesena 1-0 on Sunday.

Third-placed Udinese square off against Fiorentina in Tuscany on the back of a 2-0 triumph over Atalanta – their fifth victory of the campaign.

Parma coach Roberto Donadoni heads into Wednesday's match at Torino knowing failure to win could see him lose his job. Sunday's 3-1 home defeat to Sassuolo was Parma's seventh loss of the campaign and their fifth on the bounce and left them at the foot of the standings.

Palermo and Chievo face each other on Wednesday in Sicily with both in the drop zone having managed just one win apiece.

Red-hot Lazio make the journey to Verona to face Hellas on Thursday looking for their fifth straight win. The Eternal City club are fifth in the standings – level on 15 points with sixth-spotted AC Milan who were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Fiorentina but are riding a five-match unbeaten run ahead of their game at Cagliari.

Milan at 6-5 with Coral are another Super Single contender against a side who have lost two and drawn four of the last six meetings in Sicily.

In Germany, Bayern Munich face their “most important 10 days” before the winter break according to coach Pep Guardiola, comes in Hamburg on Wednesday.

After failing to pass the first test of a crucial period of fixtures, drawing 0-0 at Borussia Monchengladbach on Sunday, Bayern cannot afford to get it wrong in Hamburg where a place in the third round of the DFB-Pokal is at stake.

Failure there would see one of their objectives for the season vanish and their last visit to the HSV-Arena will hardly fuel their optimism. A 0-0 draw was one of only three games in the Bundesliga this term in which Bayern failed to take maximum points.
Hamburg went down 3-0 at Hertha Berlin on Saturday though and are not in the best of shape ahead of the biggest game of their campaign so far.

Bayern are no bigger than 3-10 with William Hill but it could be one foe the treble.

On Wednesday night, Wurzburg or Eintracht Braunschweig will provide another lower-league representative in the last 16, as will one from RB Leipzig and Erzgebirge Aue.

The only other all-Bundesliga clash takes place at the Waldstadion between Eintracht Frankfurt and Monchengladbach and the bet could be over 2.5 goals with Eintracht's last six totalling 29 including a 5-4 defeat at home to Stuttgart at the weekend.

When third-tier Cornella were drawn to play holders Real Madrid in the last 32 of the King's Cup players and officials from the Barcelona-based club celebrated wildly what they called “winning the lottery”.

Wednesday's first-leg match will be played at the nearby stadium of top-flight Espanyol and will provide some welcome extra revenue for tiny Cornella, whose annual budget of around 1 million euros (1.3 million US dollars on usdmoney.com) is dwarfed by Real's income of more than half a billion.

Real are likely to rest many of their big guns but with the team on a high after Saturday's 3-1 win at home to Barcelona in the El Clasico, Cornella will probably become the latest team crushed by the Real juggernaut.

If Real get through to the last 16 as expected they are likely to meet 2013 winners Atletico Madrid and then it's with Barcelona, who Real beat 2-1 in last season's final, as probable opponents in the last eight.

Real are of course extremely short at 1-25 with the likes of William Hill so check team line-ups then decide how many you think they'll win by.

The other Copa del Rey tie sees Sevilla visit Sabadell and they are 4-11 with William Hill and Ladbrokes.

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