Champions League Semi-Finals: The Best Way To Bet
by Ludovic Becuwe | by Abdel Zairi
The Key Bets
MANCHESTER CITY V REAL MADRID
After a brilliant two legged performance against PSG, Manuel Pellegrini’s side have shown that they are a force to be reckoned with. Madrid will come into this tie as hot favourites but there are areas of their game that City will target. Wolfsburg showed that Madrid can be fragile at times, which should lead to an interesting match up.
Ronaldo’s strike rate – This man is simply unplayable on his day. What more can we say? 16 goals alreadly in this years competiton and we haven’t even reached the semi finals yet! The Portuguese frontman has bagged three hat-tricks in this years campaign. Manuel Pellegrini must be pulling his hair out trying to figure out a plan to stop the Los Blancos star. Since been criticised for not scoring against the big sides, the three time Ballon d’Or winner scored the crucial winner at the Camp Nou and brought his side back from the brink against Wolfsburg. With confidence at an all time high, it is extermely likely that Ronaldo will net in Manchester. Ronaldo to bag two or more is priced at .
Aguero & De Bruyne – A lethal combination: With these two magicians playing at the top of their game off late, they are bound to cause Ramos and Pepe some serious problems. The little Argentine has just scored his 100th Premier League goal in just 147 appearences. An incredible achievement. After De Bruyne’s recent knee injury many pundits thought that it would take him a while to get to his best. Within his first two games back he scored an assisted in an away win over Bournemouth. Then he scored and put in a man of the match performance against PSG in Paris ! If the two combine Madrid will have problems. De Bruyne to score last is priced at
The importance to a good keeper – Joe Hart has been playing out of skin of late. He brilliantly denied Zlatan Ibrahimovic from the spot at a crucial time time in the first leg in Paris. He is a great leader in the City defense and with the retuning Vincent Kompany, Madrid will have to be at their best to break them down. .
ATLETICO MADRID V BAYERN MUNICH
Atletico Madrid produced one of the greatest performances in recent times as Atleti dumped the reigning champions, Barcelona out of the Champions League. After losing 2-1 in the first leg at the Camp Nou, Simeone knew that his side must score to have any chance of progressing. That man Antoine Griezmann scored a brilliant header just before half time after a super cross from Saul. Munich came through a tough tie against Benfica, as the German giants won 3-2 on aggregate. After a 1-0 win in the first leg, Bayern were made to work as they qualified with a 2-2 draw in Portugal.
Griezmann V Lewandowski – Two of the inform strikers in Europe go head to head in a crucial Champions League clash. Two brilliant strikers that are good in the air and with ball at their feet with do their best to down the oppostion. Griezmann proved the match winner once again and the Munich No.9 is worth is wait in gold for the German side. The French man to score first is priced at .Lewandowski to bag two or more is .
Air tight defense’s – Both sides boast world class defender’s. Godin, Alaba, Felipe Luis and Lahm to name but a few. Atletico managed to keep the mightly Barcelona scoreless in the second leg. Madrid work brilliantly as a team. They are well organised and rarely make mistakes. Munich are the same. They are built on a world class defense with Manuel Neuer acting as a ball playing sweeper. .
With Atleti keeping Barcelona scoreless at home in their most recent UCL match, there is no reason why they can’t do that again. A typical Simeone performance could see his side win to nil. .
