Home » Champions League Acca – 23rd & 24th February
Champions League Acca – 23rd & 24th February
The Champions League is back this week with the remaining Round of 16 First Leg ties in the
competition. Both Manchester City and Chelsea will begin their quest to reach the quarterfinals this week with two tricky looking away games against Borussia Monchengladbach and Atletico Madrid respectively.
Last week's games were a real mixed bunch with some surprise results thrown in the mix. Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Paris St Germain all registered excellent wins on the road, while FC Porto upset the form book to land a big win over Juventus, which sets up a tricky tie for the Italians in the second leg.
Suffice to say that those rather unusual results, meant that last week's acca in this tournament was a non-starter.
This week we have a couple of other games in addition to those involving the English teams with the holders of the trophy, Bayern Munich travelling to Rome to take on Lazio, while Real Madrid will test their mettle against one of the more enterprising and entertaining teams in European football over the last couple of years, Atalanta.
One thing is for sure, we have seen more than our fair share of surprise results in this competition this season, both in the last round and also in the knockout stage, so it is going to be intriguing to see how these first leg ties unfold. Will they be cagey affairs, or will one of the two teams competing grab the initiative?
Let's take a look at the tips for this week.
Tue - At.Madrid v Chelsea - Home Win
Tue - Lazio v Bayern Munich - Away Win
Wed - Atalanta v Real Madrid - Home Win
Wed - Borussia M. v Man City - Away Win
Bet Analysis: Tuesday 23rd February
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea – Home Win
Somewhat unusually, Chelsea have never lost a Champions League game in Madrid to Atletico, drawing two and winning the most recent game between the two 2-1 back in 2017. With Atletico flying high in La Liga though, this is a big ask for Thomas Tuchel's men who are now on an 8 game unbeaten run. That said, they haven't played a team like Atletico in that run and I think the Spanish side, with Luis Suarez and Joao Felix in attack, allied to that strong defence, may just do enough to clinch a narrow win, which will make the second leg very interesting.
Lazio v Bayern Munich – Away Win
Can Lazio stun the world and defeat Bayern Munich, the holders of this trophy? It would have been unthinkable a few months ago, but at the moment, Bayern are in something of a slump in form. They have drawn at home to Arminia Bielefeld and then lost away to Eintracht Frankfurt this weekend. Lazio meanwhile have racked up eight wins in their last ten games and, strangely, are the form team heading into this game. All that said, I still won't back against the Bavarians from landing the win here. On their day, Bayern are just too good for almost all teams in this competition and when it matters they usually pull it out of the bag. I expect them to do that here.
Bet Analysis: Wednesday 24th February
Atalanta v Real Madrid – Home Win
I think this game will be determined which version of these teams appear. If Atalanta play like they did at home to Liverpool and Real can find their best form, then the Spaniards should win, especially with all the experience at their disposal. However, I remember saying pretty much the same thing in last year's tournament when Atalanta met Valencia at this stage and the Italian team ran out 8-4 winners on aggregate! I love how attack minded Gasperini's young team are and I think that vigour and energy will cause this experienced and somewhat one-paced Real side plenty of problems. So much so, I am backing an upset win here for the home side.
Borussia Monchengladbach v Manchester City – Away Win
Can Borussia Monchengladbach cause what would be the upset of this round of games? In form Manchester City come to this game looking likely to be named EPL Champions in May and with a fresh focus after a stunning run of winning games. The German side though are not in the best form at the moment and with Marcus Thuram a doubt, their main attacking threat may also not be fit. That does make me think their chances of stopping City here are not that great. The way that Pep Guardiola's team are playing at the moment makes them an obvious pick not just to win the Premier League, but to also go very deep in this competition, starting with a win here.