At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea & Valencia battle it out for the second qualification spot to join German side Bayer Leverkusen in the next round. The permutations in this Group E encounter are: whoever prevails progresses with the losing side finishing third (meaning a dreaded Europa League place). A score draw will be enough for Valencia while a goalless result will take Chelsea through unless Leverkusen lose.
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| (Will Andre Villas-Boas be celebrating progression or potentially collecting his P45?) |
It's well documented that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is desperate to win the Champions League & many managers have been axed due to their failure to do so. Therefore this is a massive game for current boss Andre Villas-Boas. Chelsea have been struggling all season defensively & have conceded goals in all bar seven of their 22 matches in all competitions & sides with a lot less attacking ability than Valencia have managed to breach them. So playing for a 0-0 draw isn't really a viable option for AVB so can they score the goals to progress? They have chopped & changed their attacking options but they seem to have settled on the trio of Mata, Drogba & Sturridge with them all scoring in recent games. Overall they have scored 31 goals in 14 league games & 10 in five Champions League games so an average of just over two goals per game.
Visitors Valencia sit 3rd in Liga & come into the game on the back of a 2-1 victory over Espanyol last weekend. They rested Jonas, Sofiane Feghouli & goal machine Roberto Soldado for the match but the latter came off the bench to score the winner in the 80th minute. Soldado is in fine form as has 14 goals in 20 games so far this season & five in as many matches in Europe. Valencia have only failed to score twice in their 14 Liga & 5 Champions league games & have conceded in over 2/3rds of these games. We expect this game to a nail biter for the all the fans involved but from a betting perspective the 5/6 on offer from bet365 for both teams to score represents a good bet & means if the game enters the final 15 minutes at 1-1 you can sit back relax & enjoy the impending chaos with your money safely banked.
Visitors Valencia sit 3rd in Liga & come into the game on the back of a 2-1 victory over Espanyol last weekend. They rested Jonas, Sofiane Feghouli & goal machine Roberto Soldado for the match but the latter came off the bench to score the winner in the 80th minute. Soldado is in fine form as has 14 goals in 20 games so far this season & five in as many matches in Europe. Valencia have only failed to score twice in their 14 Liga & 5 Champions league games & have conceded in over 2/3rds of these games. We expect this game to a nail biter for the all the fans involved but from a betting perspective the 5/6 on offer from bet365 for both teams to score represents a good bet & means if the game enters the final 15 minutes at 1-1 you can sit back relax & enjoy the impending chaos with your money safely banked.
(The real Super Mario (Gomez) can show why he's one of Europe's best)
Our second bet is the easiest that we've had to pick all year with Bayern Munich offering outstanding value to beat Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium & put the big spenders out of the Champions League in the group stage at their first attempt. The prices for this fixture seem like the preposterous ones on offer at the end of the season when relegation worried teams get shortened up against mid table sides who supposedly have little to play for, unfortunately (no matter what most dreadful pundits & commentators tell you) 'wanting it more than the other team' has little to no effect on results - Barcelona haven't won everything going because of desire, they've won because they're better than the rest.
City might be flying in the league, now that Mancini seems to have understood that attacking is important as well as defending, but they have been less than impressive in this competition with their only wins coming against pointless Villareal. The English side haven't looked to play with the same fluency as in the league & were beaten fair & square in the reverse fixture in Germany, Bayern Munich are already through as winners but still have plenty of motivation to win here, not least financial where a win is worth 800,000 euros. Man City's massive spending & hoovering up of some of the world's top talent has been noticed by the current European elite & Bayern would love nothing more than putting down a marker with a win here & also knocking out a team that could have conceivably won the competition. City will aim to keep this tight at the start but at some point will have to come at Bayern & they have the weapons to counter City especially with just about the best out & out striker around now in Mario Gomez, he has 21 goals in 22 appearances this year & is on offer at 9/4 to score at anytime. Franck Ribery seems to be coming back to form & 21 year old Toni Kroos is really emerging as a top talent, not enough can be said about how good a player Bastian Schweisteiger (injured for this one) is & they are building for the future with the young & talented centre back pairing of Badstuber & Boateng. Clearly Man City have great players & they are rolling over weaker teams & have taken advantage of uncharacteristic poor displays from the couple of top sides they've played in the league so far but they don't deserve to be red hot favourites here. Bayern Munich can be bet at massive odds of 5/1 with William Hill & have to backed from a value perspective alone.
Both teams to score in the Chelsea vs Valencia game at 5/6 (bet365)
Bayern Munich to beat Manchester City at 5/1 (William Hill)
Mario Gomez to score at anytime at 9/4 (Stan James) in Bayern Munich v Manchester City game
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