Tonight sees week 2 of the First Legs in the Champions League Round of 16 take place. Two matches take place tonight with the remaining two fixtures taking place tomorrow between Athletico Madrid vs Juventus and Schalke 04 vs Manchester City. Definitely some exciting action to look forward to but let's dive right into tonight's analysis.
Liverpool vs Bayern Munich
Behind the Manchester United vs PSG fixture, this match is my next favourite. Both teams will be looking to secure any early before heading into the second leg but the match will undoubtedly be tight. Both teams emerged from difficult groups and shows that this match will be nothing else but spectacular. Klopp will be hoping to move past the round of 16 and potentially go all the way to overcome last year's disappointing final. Meanwhile, Bayern will be looking to pave a way forward to silverware in the Champion's League following their mediocre performance in the Bundesliga this season. Some key stats for this fixture:
- Liverpool are unbeaten at home in the Champion's league this season and have only conceded twice, both occuring in their 3-2 victory over the mighty PSG.
- Liverpool have scored 89% of their goals this campaign at home and score on average 2,67 goals per home match.
- Bayern are unbeaten both home and away during this campaign and only conceded 3 goals away from home in their 3-3 Ajax draw.
- Liverpool will be without defensive stronghold Virgil Van Dijk for this match. With Van Dijk, Liverpool have lost just once in the Premier League this season while keeping 13 clean sheets and only conceding 15 goals in his 26 appearances.
- Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich) has the mosts assists (10) in the Bundesliga this season. Combined with Lewandowski, top goalscorer after the group stage, they will be looking to exploit a weakened Liverpool defense.
- Liverpool's triple threat provides many attacking options, however, as opposed to Bayern's reliance on their talisman.
- The last meeting between these sides saw Mane, Salah and Sturridge score to defeat Bayern 3-0 away from home on 1 August 2017 in the Audi Cup.
My picks for this game:
- Total goals over 2,5 @ 7/10
- BTTS @ 8/13
- Liverpool +0 @ 8/15
- Lewandowski to score anytime @ 23/10
Based on the stats and Liverpool's home form, despite being with Van Dijk, I see Liverpool just possessing an edge over Bayern. A win margin of 1 goal is most likely and Liverpool will be successful in this leg if they can control Lewandowski and Kimmich from the outset. As for the second leg, Liverpool away are relatively weak at this point in time and i would have to then favour Bayern to qualify should they put in a strong second home leg.
Remember to bet on this match right here on Betscorum
Lyon vs Barcelona
This fixture is notably less unpredictable than the other Round of 16 fixtures happening but i believe their is still some value that can be made off this match. Lyon will be looking to put in a strong performance to take an advantage into leg 2 while Barcelona will most probably go all out and want to put the league-tie to rest and just take leg 2 easy at the Camp Nou. The key stats for this fixture are:
- Lyon are unbeaten at home this campaign but have failed to win any home matches. All three matches ended a draw.
- Barcelona are also undefeated but came from a much tougher group with the likes of PSV, Inter and Tottenham. They only drew twice, once at home to Spurs and once away to Inter.
- 80% of Barcelona's goals conceded this campaign came away from home while Lyon have conceded 55% of their total goals at home.
- Barcelona appear to have all their A-side players available while Lyon are missing their joint top scorer this Champion's League, Nabil Fekir, due to suspension.
- Barcelona have kept a clean sheet in a third of their games while Lyon have failed to keep a clean sheet this campaign.
- Both teams have averaged over 2 goals per game this Champions League Season while Lyon have conceded twice as many times than Barca.
- Messi (6) and Dembele (2) have provided Barca with 8 of their 14 goals in the campaign.
- Lyon were impressive in the group stage by defeating Manchester City early on but their group was relatively weaker than Barcelona.
My picks for this game:
- Barcelona -1 @ 4/3
- Total goals over 2,5 @ 6/10
- Barcelona/Barcelona HT/FT @ 7/4
- Messi to score anytime @ 3/4
Barcelona appear to be the stronger team and their run to the Round of 16, in my opinion, has better prepared them against tougher opponents compared to Lyon. The quality of Barcelona will be tough for Lyon to cope with and defensive solidity should see Barcelona taken the first leg with some ease.
Remember to bet on this match right here on Betscorum
Be sure to let me know of your thoughts and Follow/Upvote if you like the post!
Comments