We'll take a look at games which look like the main courses of this dish called the first knock out round of the Champions League 2019, and we'll look at some betting predictions for the upcoming games.
Champions League 2019 has returned last week and what a feast of football extravaganza we had.Now, we'll take a look at games which look like the main courses of this dish called the first knock out round.
But before, let's recapitulate what happened in the last week of the Champions League.
Surely the biggest talking point was the win of David over Goliath, or Ajax 4 - 1 Real Madrid. Ajax was trailing by a goal from the leg 1 of this two-game tie when they lost 2 - 1 in Amsterdam. It looked for Ajax as a mission impossible to go through, but that was not what Erik ten Hag's lads thought.
Ajax played one of the best games of the season in the Champions League and crushed The Los Blancos with the help of one man, in particular, forward Dusan Tadic. Tadic's performance in this match earned him a perfect 10 rating, given by the French tabloid L'Equipe. The Serbian forward is now only the ninth player in football history to receive a perfect score, other winners include Lionel Messi (twice), Neymar and Robert Lewandowski, and many other footballing greats.
And if the game in the Spanish capital wasn't enough of a spectacle, here comes Wednesday and Champions League spoils us again.
Manchester United who were trailing a devastating result of 2 - 0 coming from the home game into this tie, were handicapped by no less than 10 absences of the first team players for the match day. If Ajax's endeavor looked as it would surely end up in misery, then United's looked as if they were going in for slaughter in the second game of this tie.
Even thou PSG were missing both Neymar and Cavani from the starting line-up, no one, not even the bookies had the odds favor the B squad of United. But many of the gamblers, bookies, pundits and the football know it all guys had this one completely wrong.
United played bravely, scored early and, many will say, deservedly went through to the next round. Ole Gunnar Solskjær and his B team made the impossible - possible. United's youth lead by the awakened Belgian forward, Romelu Lukaku, managed to beat the Saudi billions and once again brought misery on the French capital.
Now let us see which games could be screamers in this week's clashes.
Juventus vs. Atl. Madrid, first leg 0 - 2
The first game that is promising to be action packed in this week's Tuesday fixture is between Juventus and Diego Simeone's side Atletico Madrid.
Juventus, who coming to this match practically already won the Italian Serie A title, have only one goal on their minds and that is the Champions League trophy. But their journey to becoming the top team in Europe could come to an early end, as they trail with a two-goal deficit from the first leg.
Max Allegri's side has names like Ronaldo, Dybala, Mandzukic, Costa, and Bernardeschi as their forwards, but in spite of all that firepower, they didn't manage to threaten the goal of Jan Oblak.
Madrid played tactically as they always play their games, they set their defense deep and waited for the opposition to make a mistake, and when they did then Atletico attacked vigorously via counter-attacks. But oddly they scored both of their goals after attacking set pieces, and it was defenders who snatched away the winning goals, both Godin and Gimenez scored.
With a bit more luck on their side, they could have scored more, when Griezmann hit the post, Costa's terrible miss in a one-on-one situation and let's not forget Morata's goal being disqualified after VAR intervention.
Juventus will have to play a heck better than they did in the first leg if they want to have any chance to go through. Can they do it, possibly? Just looking at the last year's tie in the Champions League when they had a 3 - 0 home loss to Real Madrid and still managed to catch the score in the second leg.
Bookies have made Juventus a clear favorite in this game, giving them the odds of 7/10 to win the tie, but the bet that caught the eye is goal total, 59/50 on more than 2.5 goals. These picks are from Unibet betting site if you'd like to see more offers head over to https://gamblerino.com/ and find numerous more betting sites and check their odds and offers.
Bayern Munchen vs. Liverpool, first leg 0-0
Two equally strong clubs are coming into this second leg in similar forms. Both are still in the title race in their respected leagues, and both are hoping to win the most prestigious European trophy this spring.
The result from the first leg is quite honestly a fair one, with both teams showing a glimpse of individual brilliance, but none managed to score a goal. The fact that will mean more to Liverpool than it does to Bayern.
Liverpool greatly missed their main man Virgil Van Dijk in the defense and it shown on a couple occasions, but he'll be back in the starting line up in this game which will mean a world to Jurgen Klopp.
On the other hand, Niko Kovac's side simply has to look like a slight underdog in this tie, given they will probably be missing Robben, Alaba, Coman, and Tolisso. Add to this poor form of some key players and you get Bayern in its realistic state.
It will be a great battle this one, and even thou Klopp has a negative score against Bayern ever since Bundesliga days, I can't see pass Liverpool in this one. Liverpool doesn't even need to win in this tie, they can score one goal and sit back, with even a 1 - 1 draw enough to see them through.
For this tie to end in a draw the bookies have set an odd of 27/10, worth taking a shoot.
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