Bruce Vail
March Madness may officially be over, but that doesn’t mean we need to take a break from betting (well, maybe if you had a couple stacks on the Zags, you would want to.)
But for those who didn’t, we have soccer to bet on! Yes, that’s right … the UEFA Champions League is back this week with the Elite 8, and we have some scintillating match-ups to enjoy.
For today’s slate, we have Borussia Dortmund out of the Bundesliga facing off against the Premiere League leaders Manchester City in what should bring certain fireworks and drama to the Etihad, while in the second match-up, we have a rematch of the 2018 final with Liverpool traveling to Madrid to face off against La Liga giants Real Madrid. This is the match-up I’m looking to target – there’s strong value to be had with Liverpool Draw no bet at -132. If you take these two teams at face value given the current form in their perspective domestic leagues, you’d probably lean Real Madrid, especially considering they’re the home side in this match-up.
There’s no secret that Liverpool has struggled this year after coming off their first EPL title in team history and first league title since 1990, but there’s a couple of reasons for that – the main reason being injuries. Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side lost both centre backs in Joe Gomez and of course Virgil van Dijk early in the season and have struggled with a plugin and play /platoon approach throughout the season. With that all being said, Real Madrid are currently in a mild form and have far from impressed in the Champions League this year having dropped two matches outright to Shaktar Donestk, and having some other shaky performances against the likes of Borussia Machengladbach and Atalanta. We all know how good Real Madrid and Barcelona are within the realm of La Liga, they are the giants of Spain and carry that cache across the world – everyone knows these two clubs. With that being said I think La Liga struggles with overall competition and is not near at the level of teams in the Premiere League. Basically what I’m trying to say is the EPL is a much more competitive and stronger league than La Liga.
I expect this match-up to be close, and I do like the revenge factor Liverpool has especially coming off a 3-1 loss in the final three years ago in which we saw Liverpool’s best player Mo Salah taken off the field early in the game due to injury. It is also important to note that Real Madrid’s captain Sergio Ramos will be missing this fixture due to injury so that levels the playing field a little bit. I think there’s value on “both teams to score” at some juice at -155, however for better odds, I’m backing Liverpool draw no bet at -132 in an expected tight match-up in the final 8 of Champions League.
Both matches today are 3 p.m. ET.
Odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook.
You can follow Bruce on Twitter (@BruceJVail) and e-mail him at [email protected].
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