German giants Bayern Munich have one foot in the Champions League semi-finals after a comfortable 2-0 victory over Marseille in their last-eight first leg in France.

Bayern overturned a first-leg deficit to humiliate Basel 7-0 in the previous round and picked up where they left off at the Stade Velodrome, though they had to work harder for the win this time around.

It could have been a different story had Loic Remy kept his composure in front of goal early in the contest. Manuel Neuer did well to thwart Rod Fanni before Remy somehow sliced the follow up into the side-netting from close range. Fans of Victor Chandler will have been shocked by the miss.

Remy was Marseille’s biggest threat and had another chance five minutes before the break, but could only shoot straight at Neuer from 20 yards.

The Frenchman was made to pay for his profligacy in front of goal when the prolific Mario Gomez gave the visitors the lead on the stroke of half-time after his tame shot found a way past keeper Elinton Andrade.

Marseille pushed forward after the interval in search of a way back into the contest but lacked the quality of their visitors and fell further behind 20 minutes from time.

Arjen Robben slotted home just inside the six-yard box after neat interplay with Thomas Muller to put Bayern firmly in control of the tie ahead of the second leg in Germany next Tuesday.

The Dutch winger is confident his side will book a semi-final meeting with his former club Real Madrid and the www.betvictor.com betting shows this confidence is well placed.

“We have made a big step because two goals is a big advantage,” said Robben.

“They will have to come to Munich and score twice. We’ll need to concentrate from the first minute of the second leg but we will go into the game with a lot of confidence.”

The 2010 World Cup was largely a disappointing one for the game’s star strikers. David Villa and Diego Forlan, who were part of a four-way tie for the mantle of top scorer confirmed their status as goalscorers of the highest standard, but goalscoring stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney who were expected to light up the tournament – by the sponsors at least – failed to fire.

This has been a recurring theme at major tournaments for some time, but things might change in Ukraine and Poland this summer. There are some in-form strikers plying their trade in the big European leagues despite the best of them all Messi being absent.

The club statistics of Ronaldo continue to amaze, as followers of online betting at Bet Victor will know. He has now scored more than 100 goals for Real Madrid in his three seasons at the club, at a better than a goal a game ratio. His, like Messi, are achievements that belong to another era, when high scoring was de rigueur. His record for Portugal is decent by anyone’s standards, but he is the best possible form to elevate it to another level.

The Premier League has rarely seen a top team be so dependent on one player’s goals as Arsenal have been on Robin van Persie and with an injury-free season finally behind him, the Dutch can hope for him to be as influential for them.

Wayne Rooney has not hit the heights he did in 2009/10, but he is playing better as the season goes on and two-match suspension notwithstanding will arrive more experienced about how to handle a major tournament after a tough domestic season and people placing a Victor Chandler bet will have to think about what sort of impact he will make.

Mario Gomez has been a threat for Germany for some time but has only this year joined the top table of European hotshots. He will be a dangerous spearhead of a strong German team. Olivier Giroud and Zlatan Ibrahimovich have been filling their boots in France and Italy respectively and will need to show similar deadliness for their countries if Sweden and France are to make a big impact.

Bolton Wanderers boss Owen Coyle has voiced his concerns about his players’ frame of mind ahead of Saturday’s clash with Blackburn Rovers. The whole club are obviously still pre-occupied with the health of Fabrice Muamba but Coyle will be thankful that the player’s family have insisted that Wanderers go ahead with their season.

His team will be thankful that they make their return on home turf in a crucial Lancashire derby. Home support will never be more helpful and this relegation six-pointer is the ideal opportunity to lift the mood at the Reebok Stadium and fans of Victor Chandler will be keeping a close eye on things.

The Trotters came out on top when these teams met just before Christmas in an encounter that was highly charged for less poignant reasons. Rovers could not recover from surrendering an early two-goal lead when the fan antipathy towards Steve Kean was at its most ferocious; indeed, if the behaviour of football fans in the last week has cast them in a good light, the torrent of abuse suffered by Kean in that match was a lowlight of fan behaviour this season.

That was just Rovers’ second win from their last 10 encounters with Rovers, the Ewood Park outfit winning six times with two draws. Rovers will not be put off by away disadvantage, the special atmosphere expected on Saturday notwithstanding, as only Wolverhampton Wanderers have collected less points at home than Bolton this term and people looking at www.betvictor.com need to bear this in mind.

Queens Park Rangers’ stunning win against Liverpool has left Bolton two points adrift of safety and this is perhaps their last chance to haul Rovers back into the dogfight to avoid the drop – victory for Rovers would see them go eight points clears of their local rivals.

Blackburn have won three of their last five and with Yakubu back in the team and back amongst the goals, they will be confident of maintain their good form in this one. A draw would not be a disaster for either side – QPR have a far tougher run-in than Rovers –but the home side will not use words as disaster readily, as their plight has been put into perspective by recent events.

Derek Fisher has confirmed that he has agreed a deal with the Houston Rockets to buy himself out of his contact with the Texan franchise.

The Rockets only acquired Fisher on Thursday and the club were understandably keen to put him straight into the side, even talking up the possibility taking the $3.4 million option to sign him for next season.

However, the veteran point guard appears to have had a change of heart and has now agreed to leave the Toyota Centre as according to his manager Jamie Wior, he doesn’t think he can win the championship with Houston.

“Derek’s desire to win a sixth championship is what drives him and will continue to drive him as he moves forward,” Wior said in the statement.

Fisher was traded by the Lakers last week with power forward Jordan Hill going the other way as the LA side wanted to avoid having to play excessive salaries to three point guards following the signing of Ramon Sessions.

Despite his declining contributions over the last few years, Fisher’s exit has caused some anger amongst the Lakers squad with Kobe Bryant describing his as ‘invaluable’ within the locker room.

Talk of the37-year-old leaving the Staples Centre had been rife for a few months and former teammate Pau Gasol believes that it greatly affected Fisher’s performances having recently gone through similar speculation himself.

“I know it’s hard to go through what he’s going through,” said Gasol. “We’ll see what ends up happening with him, but I’m not sure what he wants to do.”

Fisher is now expected to make a decision on his future in the next few days and it is currently unclear whether or not he’ll continue playing.

Written by Alex a fan of basketball and the NBA odds.

The presence of the smart two-mile hurdler Unaccompanied in the five-day declarations for the Grade 2 David Nicholson Mares Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on March 13 at least means that Quevega, winner of the race for the last three years, should have to work harder than might otherwise have been the case had Dermot Weld’s star not been given the green light to take her chance, writes Elliot Slater.

Not to put too fine a point on it, without Unaccompanied in the race the contest would have been little short of a walk-over with Willie Mullins’ odds-on favourite simply a class apart from the rest of the opposition. But Unaccompanied is a genuinely talented mare, and if she stays the trip then she might at least make Quevega have to work up a sweat if she is to reel off a record fourth successive victory in the two-and-a-half-mile contest. Those looking at the latest 2012 horse racing betting need to bear this in mind.

Quevega beat Sparky May by an easy 10 lengths in the race 12 months ago before going on to Grade 1 success in the Ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle at Punchestown in May, however she has not been seen since as Mullins has waited patiently for Cheltenham to come around before once more unleashing the best mare in the business.

Unaccompanied, a brave runner-up to Champion Hurdle hope Zarkandar in last season’s JCB Triumph Hurdle, landed the Grade 1 Istabraq Festival Hurdle at Leopardstown in December before running poorly on her most recent start when a distant fourth of five behind Hurricane Fly back at that track in January. Returning to a decent surface and having had a short break since that flop, the daughter of Danehill Dancer has the class to mix it with Quevega and the quicker ground certainly gives her a better chance of getting home on her first attempt at the distance.

Bookmakers rate Quevega a best-priced 4/7 shot with Unaccompanied available at 5/1 in places. They then go 10/1 bar the pair.

Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard hit a brilliant hat-trick and then called on his side to use the 3-0 victory over Everton as a springboard for the rest of the season.

Liverpool went into the Merseyside derby at Anfield on the back of three consecutive defeats and with the realisation that another loss would see them drop below their rivals in the Premier League table. Gerrard produced a captain’s performance to lead his side to a comfortable win and fans of Bet Victor will have been impressed.

“It has been frustrating, the inconsistency we’ve been showing in the league, very frustrating,” he said.

“We need to find a level of consistency where we go on a winning streak.”

The 31-year-old notched up his 400th Premier League appearance on his first league start since February 11 and Everton had no answer to the England international.
Liverpool started the brighter of the two sides and took a deserved lead when Gerrard curled a lofted shot into the roof of the net after sloppy Everton defending. Those placing a VC Bet will have been expecting the side to push on.

Gerrard gave the home side some breathing space early in the second half after good work by Luis Suarez before completing his hat-trick from another Suarez assist late on.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was glowing in his praise of his captain and delighted with the win over their neighbours.

“There is no way I could extol the virtues of Steven Gerrard and do him justice. He was fantastic tonight,” Dalglish said.

“For us, we are delighted we have at last got reward for a great performance here. It is one of the many we have had here, but we got reward for the effort we put in.”

A Champions League spot still looks out of reach for Liverpool despite the derby victory. The win will, however, give the Reds confidence going into their FA Cup quarter-final against Stoke City.

Manu Tuilagi has become the latest player to endorse Stuart Lancaster’s credentials to become Martin Johnson’s full-time successor.

Lancaster picked up the coaching reins on an interim basis after a dismal World Cup campaign and has stamped his own authority on the squad, introducing a whole host of new faces and naming a new captain in Chris Robshaw.

The players have responded with a series of impressive performances, culminating in a record third victory on the road in Paris on Sunday. Those following the Betfair 6 nations betting previews will have been impressed.

Lancaster is competing with former South Africa coach Nick Mallett for the role and did his chances no harm by leading his new-look England side to a historic 24-22 victory over France.

Players past and present have backed the 42-year-old for the post, with Tuilagi the latest to support his current international boss. Even those looking at the 2012 Heineken Cup Rugby will find it hard not to back Lancaster.

“Stuart has done a very good job. Personally I hope he gets the job, but that’s not my decision to make. Good luck to him. We’ll wait and see,” said Tuilagi.

Lancaster was humbled by the reaction to his team’s stunning win on French soil but insisted his feet remain firmly on the ground and the players deserve most of the credit for England’s unexpected showing in this year’s Six Nations.

“I’m level-headed in lots of ways – I guess it’s my Cumbrian upbringing where I keep my feet on the ground. I’m trying to get people to understand it’s not about me personally,” said Lancaster.

“The team is made up of many component parts. I won’t be getting carried away.”

England face Ireland this Saturday in what could be Lancaster’s final match in charge of the national side. A win could see England retain their Six Nations crown – a feat nobody expected before the championship. The Rugby Football Union will find Lancaster’s claims difficult to ignore.