BARCELONA v ROMA
Wednesday 4th April 2018 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Football – Europe – Champions League Betting Tips
Along with fellow compatriots, Real Madrid, Barcelona are one of the hot favourites to lift this season’s Champions League and they have home advantage in the first of this two-legged quarter-final against Italian outfit, Roma, at their Camp Nou ground.
Barcelona progressed through to the last eight of this competition by easing past Chelsea as they held The Blues to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, and then blew the London club away in the second leg, winning 3-0 in the return leg.
Barcelona are unbeaten in their last 17 matches in all competitions, while being unbeaten in their last nine in the Champions League. On home turf, Barcelona have won a staggering 19 of their last 20 at this level, and they don’t look like letting up anytime soon. Strikers, Messi (26 goals) and Suarez (22 goals) are the obvious goal threats.
Roma may well be fearing the worst as they make their way over to Spain for this quarter-final first leg with memories of the 6-1 thrashing they were dealt by Barcelona in their previous meeting in November 2015, although they bring a five match unbeaten run into this tie.
An away goal in a 2-1 defeat at Shakhtar Donetsk actually saved their bacon in the previous round of 16 as they overturned the Ukraine club with a 1-0 win in the return leg at their Stadio Olimpico, and this has been complemented by recent Serie A wins over Napoli, Torino and Crotone.
This is all well and good, but when you then take a look at Roma’s results away from home in the Champions League, there is an obvious disparity between home form and on the road, as Roma have collected just one win from their last 14 matches, which was a 2-1 win at Azerbaijan side, Qarabag back in September last year.
This should therefore be a relatively comfortable home win here.
Pick: Barcelona to win and Over 2.5 @ 1.67 Coral
