Champions League Odds: Barcelona faces a must-win situation at Levski Sofia
OK, we all know that reigning champ FC Barcelona faces a must-win situation at Levski Sofia in the Champions League as it battles with Werder Bremen for the second spot in Group A on Wednesday.
A draw or defeat combined with a Bremen home win against Chelsea would make Barcelona the first defending champion to fail to make it out of a group stage.
But let’s forget about Ronaldinho and company for a while and talk about some other European giants fighting to advance Final 16.
Last season’s finalist Arsenal has a real challenge facing it as it sits in third place in Group G — even on seven points with FC Porto and one point behind CSKA Moscow.
Arsene Wenger’s side could find itself in a much better position for the final group stage game day in two weeks as Moscow hosts Porto on Tuesday. While the Russians are slight -110 Sports Interaction favorites, the main thing is that Arsenal could be ahead of one or both teams.
The London troops face an uncomfortable opponent in German outfit SV Hamburg, which has zero points and hopes to play spoilers. Hamburg has scored just three goals in four games, and things won’t be any easier in England with forwards Paolo Guerrero and Juan Pablo Sorin.
Arsenal, for its part, can count on the returns of German keeper Jens Lehmann and Gilberto Silva. But playmaker Tomas Rosicky is battling a knee problem and could miss the encounter.
Inter Milan, meanwhile, is better positioned in second place in Group B with six points — one point better than third-place Sporting Lisbon. The Portuguese travel to Milan looking to take the upper hand as they host Spartak Moscow on the final game day and Inter plays at Bayern Munich.
Inter, which the weekend grabbed the lead in the Italian Serie A, is a -275 favorite on SportsInteraction.com and knows a victory is enough to advance to the knockout stages.
While Chelsea, Arsenal and Inter are in dogfights to make the Round of 16, there are two group races which could be decided this week.
The 2005 champion, Liverpool, and 2005 semifinalist PSV Eindhoven both are secured knockout spots with 10 points in Group C. But they hook horns in England on Wednesday with a winner guaranteed the top spot in the next stage.
Liverpool is a -150 favorite with a draw fetching +200 odds.
In Group E, Real Madrid is drawing even odds in its home encounter with leader Olympique Lyon. The Spanish giants are three points behind the French (12 to nine) and need to win by a three-goal margin in order to have a chance to overtake them on the final game day in early December.
Lyon wants nothing to do with that and is two wins from becoming only the sixth team — and first since Barcelona in 2002-03 — to collect six victories in the group stage.
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Champions League Prediction: BET on Barcelona to win back-to-back European Cup titles.
