12 Jun 2019
City seek repeat performance… a Rampant Ronaldo… and Magical Messi – are Man City the only team in with a real-shot of turning things around?
Last year saw arguably the most unbelievable Champions League comeback in history, as Barcelona rallied from a 4-0 first leg defeat to PSG to run out 6-5 winners on aggregate after three goals in the 88th, 91st and 95th minutes.
With that historic match still relatively fresh in the memory and the first-legs in this year’s competition being largely one-sided affairs, the four sides on the receiving end of stinging defeats last week will look to take inspiration.
Although there might be a literal mountain to climb in football terms, here we take a look at who has the calibre to deliver a shock fightback, with all of your Champions League betting odds covered.
On a separate note, after Ronaldo’s incredible overhead kick last week, for many he is unquestionably the best ever player to have graced the Champions League. That being said, it is seemingly unthinkable that a side can win back-to-back-to-back titles in the modern era. We don’t think so, so why not hedge your bets early and get Real Madrid to win the Champions League at outright football betting odds of 9/4.
Manchester City vs Liverpool (0-3 agg)
Liverpool’s European history is no doubt something that has somewhat defined the club over the years and if they can put their name in the hat for the next round, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t start dreaming of another Milan style fairy-tale. The Reds have never lost a European tie after winning the home first leg by a 3-0 margin, but then again Pep Guardiola had never previously conceded at least three goals in back-to-back games in his entire managerial career until this weekend. As Liverpool face an anxious wait to see if their talisman Mo Salah will be fit, City will hope to draw upon a record that has seen them score three or more goals in over half of their 23 home games this season to see them through to the semi-finals. After beating Liverpool 5-0 at home back in September, stranger things have happened – we fancy them at Champions League betting odds of 5/1 to qualify.
Real Madrid vs Juventus (3-0 agg)
If you didn’t think Cristiano Ronaldo could get any better, it would appear he has. The striker has a simply amazing record this season for Los Blancos with twenty goals in his last ten games. With 16 to boot in his last ten Champions League games another illuminating statistic, one would find it hard to bet against the man to nab himself yet another goal on Wednesday night. We’d go one step further and see him scoring at least two at football betting odds of 11/4.
With a double in his last two games against Juventus, the goal machine has now scored nine goals against the Italian side – no player has scored more against a single opponent in the competition. It could be damage limitation for Juve hero Buffon between the sticks.
Roma vs Barcelona (1-4 agg)
Roma will hope to give Barcelona a taste of their own medicine in this second-leg match-up as they face an uphill battle to qualify for the next round. At the Nou Camp, they were very much victims of their own mistakes, finding themselves 2-0 down after 55 minutes courtesy of two own goals. Despite this, however, after some of the Spanish press were quoted after the game saying it was ‘Messi’s worst performance of the season’, perhaps they were lucky in other ways.
After failing to score for the first time in eight games in the first-leg, it would appear to be normal service resumed for Messi, who bagged himself a hat-trick on the weekend in the League.
One thing that is for sure, Roma are going to need all the luck they can get to turn this tie around. We fancy a Barcelona win here at Champions League betting odds of 4/6 – with that, they’ll be sure to book their semi-final spot.
Bayern vs Sevilla (2-1 agg)
Other than losing out in an extra-time goal fest to eventual winners Real Madrid in last year’s competition, Bayern have not failed to reach the semi-final stage of the Champions League since the 2010-11 campaign. We see Wednesday night being no different.
Having celebrated wrapping up the German Bundesliga title on the weekend, one might think they could take their eye off the ball, but instead we see a Sevilla side that were demolished by Celta Vigo by four goals on Saturday struggling to produce enough goals to turn this tie around.
Bayern Munich haven’t conceded more than one goal at home in their last five games in all competitions. With menacing players like Ribery at their disposal - even if they do lose the odd goal, we see them outscoring their opponents. As Bayern shut up shop to try and close out the tie, we fancy a full-time score of 2-1 to the home side at football betting odds of 2/1.
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