Champions League Tips – 14th & 15th March

Inter Milan did well to take advantage of an extra man after Otavio was sent off for FC Porto in the first leg, with a late goal from Romelu Lukaku handing the Italians a slim advantage as they head into the second leg in Portugal against an FC Porto side that have generally had decent form at home in Europe this year.

FC Porto have a good home record against Inter, winning one and drawing one of their two home games against the Italian side and I feel that they have enough quality players to more than match what the Serie A side are going to throw against them here.

While I can see FC Porto landing the win in this game, my gut feeling is that it is going to be avery tight and nervy game, somewhat like the first leg and I can’t see both teams opening this game up early on, which will make for a tight and close first half.

I think FC Porto will do just enough to land the win, but I think it will be just by the single goal, which meas that we may need extra time or even penalties to decide the winner.

The last time these two teams played at the Etihad, we were treated to a 6-3 win for Manchester City in the group stages of the tournament a few years back. I can’t quite see the home side managing to land a win of that magnitude here, but my gut feeling is that it will be City that will be progressing from this round of the tournament.

Leipzig needed to have an advantage heading into this game I feel to stand any chance of success and a 1-1 draw at home, while creditable, just isn’t going to be enough to give City players and management any sleepless nights about being able to land the win they need to progress, especially with the away goals rule now no longer used in Europe.

Games between these two teams do tend to produce goals and I can see that happening here. However, while I can see City scoring three or maybe even more, I can only see Leipzig getting the one goal and if that is the case, then that is not going to be enough for them to progress.

As such I am backing City to land the win here and if they do then my bet is that Kevin de Bruyne will be at the heart of that success. The Belgian is overdue a goal in Europe and I think backing him to score at any time is a great value bet for this game.

Just how good are Napoli this year? Well, they are running away with Serie A at the moment and need just a few more wins to confirm the Scudetto. They are 2-0 up from the first leg in Germany in this competition and have put four past Liverpool and six past Ajax in the tournament so far.

So I think they are probably the most outstanding team in Europe at present and it is for that reason that I cannot really go with anything other than another comfortable win for the Italian side here. The way they play and the pace and danger posed by their attack really makes them a stand-out force in Europe.

Frankfurt are a decent Bundesliga side but I think that we saw in the first leg that having sold a number of players from their Europa League winning team last season, they are not quite as strong as they were last year and that has shown in some of their performances this season.

So for me, this is a big night in Naples and I can see the home side adding a few more goals to their aggregate total to make this a very comprehensive win for the home side.

I don’t think even the most optimistic of Liverpool fans is expecting to get anything from this game. The 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United was a rare result and a fantastic performance but at the weekend, an away defeat to Bournemouth is enough to suggest to me that this Liverpool side is nowhere near being able to get any kind of result here, let alone a win by three or more goals.

Real’s form of late has been pretty solid and they are unbeaten in their last five games. They also have in Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr, two players who have terrorised the Liverpool defence in the most recent meetings between the teams and I think it is likely that one, or both, of the Real Madrid stars will be on the scoresheet here once again.

I also feel Real are far too experienced to fall into the trap of being over-confident and not taking the game with the respect it deserves. They won’t want Liverpool to go 2-0 up as they did at Anfield as that could change the atmosphere in the ground markedly.

I don’t see that happening here though and I think Real will land a pretty confident and commanding victory to add to their win at Anfield and I think Vinicius Jr to score at any time is a great value bet considering how he’s played against Liverpool of late.