Champions League Matches Tonight-Liverpool v Chelsea
Champions League
Yet again it’s Liverpool v Chelsea in the Champions League and it looks like it’s going to be another epic battle. Liverpool remain unbeaten in the Champions League this season and as we have seen in the past they are difficult to beat in this tournament.
The difference this time to all the rest of their Champions League exploits is that they are in contention for the Premier League title -something their fans would love to see them win – and it will be interesting to see if that affects them in any way.
The teams have met before in the Champions League at the Semi final stages with Liverpool winning 1-0 on aggregate in 2004/05, and after a penalty shoot-out in 2006/07 while Chelsea reached the 2007/08 final by winning 4-3 over two legs after extra time. Two goalless draws in the group stages of the competition back in 2005/6 complete a pretty extraordinary series of meetings between the two clubs.
With Liverpool being in such good form recently they are probably favourites in this tie unlike in previous meetings. They very much deserve to be favourites at 13/10 (Skybet) considering they have completed the double over Chelsea in the league this season and remain unbeaten against Chelsea in their last five meetings at Anfield. We think they do have an edge tonight and we’d be surprised if Chelsea were to win 11/4 (BET365).
This will be a close game as the past results show. In eight previous meetings in the Champions League Liverpool just hold the upper hand. They have managed two wins to Chelsea’s one with the remaining five games all ending in draws.
We definitely wouldn’t want to put anyone off backing the draw tonight at odds of 2/1 (Skybet) as historically these matches between the two teams have bee very close.
In the past the matches between the two teams have brought very few goals, so the under 2.5 goals 4/9 (Paddypower) should be backed and we’d even go as far as considering taking the under 1.5 goals at 11/8 (Paddypower).
Chelsea hasn’t won in four away trips in the Champions League this season and we can’t really see them getting a win here.
We can see Liverpool getting a clean sheet and taking them to win to nil at 5/2 (Ladbrokes) could bring a return.
Steven Gerrard is joint top scorer in the competition and at 6/1 (Coral) looks a decent price to be backing. We’re taking a 1-0 correct score bet at 11/2 (Skybet)
The other quarterfinal is a real mouth watering prospect with two of football’s giants Barcelona and Bayern Munich coming face to face. This looks as if it will be a feast of attacking football and the over 2.5 goals looks a certainty at 3/5 (BET365).
Both teams have scored 24 goals from their eight matches and it looks likely that both teams will get on the score sheet tonight. With so much attacking talent on display it’s hard to come up with a first goalscorer bet as there are so many possibilities. The two options that interest us the most are Thierry Henry 9/2 (Paddypower) and Franck Riberry 12/1 (BET365).
Bayern trounced Sporting Lisbon 12-1 on aggregate in the last 16, but they won’t find Barcelona as soft a target, although Barcelona’s defence has been exposed on more than one occasion this season, we’re going to predict a 3-1 correct score 12/1 (Skybet).