Its crunch time in the Champions League.
Places in the final four are up for grabs. Madrid is in sight. No tie has been decided just yet, with perhaps Liverpool considered to be the only team with a foot in the last four.
With lots of intrigue around Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s matches, Form Labs bring you their Champions League Quarter Final accumulator with their tips on where to place your money this midweek.
Barcelona v Man Utd – Tuesday, 8pm
It just wasn’t meant to be for Man Utd in the first leg as although they made life difficult for Barcelona, they struggled to create many chances as they sought to limit the damage a glut of away goals could have done to their prospects, eventually coming away with nothing. T
hat’s a serious concern for their qualification hopes as Barcelona have won an impressive 27 of their 30 unbeaten European outings at the Camp Nou since 2013/14, with 22 of these by at least two clear goals.
You feel another gigantic upset like the one United produced in Paris last month is a stretch too far, especially since they’ve lost four of their six fixtures across all competitions since – including all three on the road.
Those trips came at Arsenal (2-0) and Wolves (2-1 in both) in the league and FA Cup respectively and with the Catalans being another few grades better than those sides, as well as having rested pretty much their entire first choice team at the weekend, we expect them to get the job done with relative ease.
TIP: BARCELONA WIN AT 10/27*
Porto v Liverpool – Wednesday, 8pm
English sides have won five of eight Champions League trips to Portugal since 2011/12 and with the last of them being when we hammered the hosts 5-0, you have to feel we can win the second leg as well.
Indeed, we’ve now won seven games on the bounce across all competitions, beating the likes of Bayern, Spurs, Porto and Chelsea and we’re riding a serious wave of momentum. Porto on the other hand, have gone W6-D1-L2 from nine matches since the start of March as they lost two of the more difficult games, hosting Benfica at the Estadio do Dragao in addition to their tip to Anfield.
With Jurgen at the helm, we’ve now won three of our four road games in this competition at the knockout stages, as our only defeat came off the back of our 5-2 hiding of Roma in the semi-finals last year.
The host don’t quite possess the talents of the Italian outfit and so we expect this to play out in our favour, especially having dominated the Blues at the weekend, with Mo Salah putting his name in the hat for the goal of the season.
TIP: LIVERPOOL WIN AT 11/10*
Man City v Spurs – Wednesday, 8pm
Pepe Guardiola may have floundered in yet another way knockout match in Europe, but back at the Etihad the Citizens have won 23 of their 25 games in all competitions this term, with 19 of them by more than a single strike and nine by at least five or more.
That record includes all four when hosting ‘Big Six’ sides, while if we extend that to the start of last season, then they’ve won eight of 10 as their only two defeats came against Liverpool in the Champions League last season, as well as against their Manchester rivals having gone 2-0 up in the first half.
Meanwhile, against similar opposition, Spurs have lost eight of their 12 outings at away or neutral venues, with their last visit to the Etihad resulting in a 4-1 humiliation.
To add insult to injury, the visitors could well be without Dele Alli as well as their captain Harry Kane and although their record is still impressive without the star striker, you feel a game of this magnitude is when they really need him most.
Although Spurs won the opening leg 1-0, they have been woeful on the road of late, losing six of their last seven road trips, and we have to oppose them against the pre-tournament favourites.
TIP: MAN CITY WIN AT 4/13*
£10 wins you £38 on Form Labs’ Champions League Accumulator!
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by Joel
