TFT Issue 350!
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Featured game
Barcelona vs AC Milan – over 3 goals at 5/6.
Today’s featured game is the UEFA Champions League game between Barcelona and AC Milan. This mouth-watering tie surprisingly produced a 0-0 draw at the Giuseppe Meazza San Siro last week but I will be staggered if it produces another one here.
Barcelona – well, do I need to write anything about them? Everyone knows all about them. In fact, everyone knows everything about AC Milan too so what the hell am I writing a preview for?! I’ll write one nonetheless.
Barcelona complained about the pitch at the San Siro and they were right to – it was a mess. It’s not like Italians to take whatever advantage that they can, though, is it? I’m also confident that their rivals Internazionale didn’t tell them about doing that after they knocked Barcelona out of the Champions League a couple of years ago, largely thanks to a 3-1 win in Italy…
Barcelona have practically got a grandiose lawn at the Nou Camp and that will suit their passing style, which in turn should mean that Xavi stops getting caught on the ball and that their players will stop getting frustrated with their passes/runs not going as planned (e.g. Dani Alves, Lionel Messi). The pitch makes a big difference, really, because if we had Barcelona’s pitch in Milan then I’m confident that Barcelona would have scored at least two of their many chances.
However, we are going to need Alexis Sanchez and Tello to demonstrate a bit of composure. They were both guilty of bad decision-making in the final third and not for the first time either. They should have enough to trouble Milan here, though, especially with Thiago Silva likely to miss this game through injury.
That said, Milan themselves were guilty of squandering chances in front of the Barcelona goal with Robinho and Ibrahimovic both wasting good chances. Milan did cause Barcelona problems with their lethal counter-attacks and I think they’ll have a similar impact tonight.
Who will progress? I’ll be surprised if it’s not Barcelona – I can’t say any result occurring in this game other than a home win. Yes, I know that Milan got a 2-2 draw here earlier in the season but if they can do it again then they’ll have to play better than they did in the first leg of this tie because barring a bumpy pitch, Barcelona would have won that game. Milan have some very good players, though, and I won’t rule anything out at this stage of the competition. Therefore, I expect an open game with plenty of goals and thus over 3 goals looks the best value bet for this game.
Verdict: Over 3 goals at 5/6.
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