CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WEDNESDAY: We preview Wednesday’s second Champions League semi-final first leg between BARCELONA v LIVERPOOL at 8pm with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
BARCELONA V LIVERPOOL
8pm What a Champions League semi-final tie. The eyes of the footballing world will be focused on Camp Nou on Wednesday night as Liverpool look to beat the mighty Barcelona. Bayern Munich may not be the force they once were, but they were blown away by Liverpool when losing 3-0 with home advantage. Barcelona will know just how good Liverpool are at counter-attacking with pace and this will be fascinating to see how both sides line up tactically. Barcelona have had a relatively easy run in the knockouts; United weren’t playing good enough football to challenge them and you’d have to say that this is their toughest test of the season.
The match odds at the time of writing currently trade; Barcelona 1.92, Liverpool 4.4 and the draw is 3.95. While in the ‘To Qualify’ market we have Barcelona 1.82 and Liverpool 2.2. It must have really hurt Barcelona to watch their bitter rivals Real Madrid win the last three Champions League trophies in a row – they will fancy beating both Spurs and Ajax in the other semi-final and now that they have wrapped up La Liga; this is their most important focus of the season. For Liverpool, their Champions League run has almost been in the background as they challenge Manchester City for the Premier League title; the clock is ticking down on that challenge but they could still end up with a famous double.
Going to the Camp Nou and getting a result is a massive ask, but Liverpool will fancy this. They have been absolutely superb in the Premier League this season and they are full of confidence. An interesting stat that came out after Virgil Van Dijk won the PFA Players’ Of The Year award is; “No opposition player has completed a dribble past Virgil van Dijk in any of his 36 Premier League appearances this season. In fact, this run stretches back to last March, meaning he hasn’t been dribbled past by an opponent in any of his last 45 Premier League appearances.” Seeing Messi take him on is going to be superb viewing! Who will come out on top? Can he stop Messi?
We have to say that Barcelona feel at least ten ticks too short at 1.92 here. It’s hard to see anything other than a very close game between two fantastic sides and the value is with the Barcelona lay at odds on. Liverpool have proven to be a very tough side to beat this season and it’s hard to see Barcelona committing too many men forward in the latter stages of this game with it only being the first leg. To have the draw and Liverpool on your side at odds against looks great value – we expect Liverpool to make the 1.92 on Barcelona feel very short. From a value point of view, we’re very happy to lay the home side. Hopefully the game lives up to the hype!
BETDAQ BEST BET:
Lay Barcelona at 1.92.
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