So Can this Barca Really be European Beaters?

So Can this Barca Really be European Beaters?

That is the question many sports betting fans may be pondering right now.

There’s no doubt Ernesto Valverde’s men are flying high with a clear lead in La Liga and a place already secured in the Copa del Rey Final.

But football games in the Champions League often prove the acid test, and this is the start of a period which will tell us whether the Catalans of 2018 can be compared to the sides which earned them a run of four European titles in 10 years up to 2015.

Chelsea vs Barcelona

Of course, the betting odds will favour Barca and with good reason.

For Valverde’s team remain unbeaten this term and have just equalled the longest unbeaten run in the club’s history, matching the record set by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in 2011.

Yet, they also know that record, both domestically and in Europe, will be really tested within the next month or so, starting with a tough assignment in west London.

After an already congested run, it’s been suggested star man Lionel Messi will receive more time to rest in the final third of the season. However, you can bet the diminutive No. 10 will be the first name on Valverde’s team-sheet for this encounter.

For a few years, this was an antagonistic rivalry.

Yet, the Jose Mourinho, Didier Drogba, Frank Rijkaard days have since passed, and this could be a more fairly tempered, though no less compelling encounter.

Former Barca favourite Pedro, a scorer in the 2011 Champions League Final success against Man Utd, admits it will be ‘odd’ for him to face many of his former teammates.

The Catalans start as slight favourites, but this should be a very close contest in which Chelsea may benefit from extra days of rest in the build-up.

The reigning English champions against this season’s likely Spanish champions—what’s not to like?!

Bayern Munich vs Besiktas

A home banker many would think, yet Besiktas’ form in the group stages showed what a dangerous side they can be.

The 2013 champions should underestimate them at their peril, despite being overwhelming favourites with Jupp Heynckes now back in charge just as he was when the Bavarians won the top prize five years ago.

They have won 13 games in a row and are runaway leaders of the Bundesliga.

Robert Lewandowski has just bettered a record set by Heynckes as a player back in 1972-73 by scoring in the first 11 home matches of the season, so the likes of him, Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben are clearly a force to be reckoned.

That Besiktas are involved in an exciting title race in Turkey could be seen as an advantage—potentially playing more competitive games each week—or a disadvantage in that Bayern can ease more of their star men in and out of the action to keep them fresh for this two-legged affair (as they did against Wolfsburg at the weekend).

There is talk of Marouane Fellaini moving to the club in the summer and his experience would certainly be a valuable addition.

Yet, they have just lost frontman Cenk Tosun who scored four times and provided two assists as the Turks became the first team to qualify from the group stages.

This may be one quality opponent for a club who has never lost to a Turkish side in European competition.

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