Messi bagged a hat-trick on Sunday(credit:
wikipedia)
It’s 6/4 that we see four goals or more at the Nou Camp
A mid-table team in the Bundesliga travel to Spain this week, hoping to pull off an almighty upset against the holders and book their place in the quarter finals of the Champions League. VfB Stuttgart haven’t fluked their way into the last sixteen of the competition and were slightly unfortunate not to beat Barca when the teams met three weeks ago. They are 14/1 (Sky Bet) to follow in the footsteps of Rubin Kazan and land a victory at the Nou Camp that will see Spain’s ‘Big Two’ both bow out of the competition at this juncture.
Admittedly, it’s an unlikely prospect, although all the pressure will be on Pep Guardiola’s team, who could easily have been two goals down at the Mercedes-Benz Arena before Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a precious equaliser and away goal. Barcelona are a prohibitive 2/7 (Boylesports) to win this match and an unbackable 1/10 (Sky Bet) to qualify from the tie, something that will be achieved with a goalless draw. However, it’s likely that there will be goals on the cards, especially as the visitors will have nothing to lose from attacking their glamorous opponents.
We saw lots of goals at the Emirates and Old Trafford last week and it’s a 6/4 chance with Stan James that we see the ball hit the net at least four times in this match. The home side managed three during a comfortable win against Valencia on Sunday and Over 2.5 Goals (8/13 Stan James) is likely to be well-backed, considering the champions are now starting to move through the gears.
In addition to their formidable Swede, Lionel Messi is hitting form at exactly the right time and his trickery will compel many punters to back him (7/2 William Hill) on the First Goalscorer market. After all, he scored a hat-trick this weekend and any slack defending on the German team’s part could see him emulate this on Wednesday (20/1 William Hill).
Thierry Henry (5/1 Paddy Power) is a household name in England after his heroics with Arsenal, although the Frenchman will have to settle for a place on the bench, with the striker in and out of the team again this season. His former Arsenal team-mate Alexander Hleb will be looking to dampen the parade at his parent club and be backed at 25/1 (Blue Square) to break the deadlock.