Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Champions League Prediction


Milan - Malaga 2.20 - 3.80

Best game of the season for Milan at the weekend. They outclassed Chievo 5-1. Something changed in the second half against Palermo with Milan playing a more offensive game than before this season. They went back to their four man defence using a 4-2-3-1 formation. Bojan has finally come alive and he was one of the best Milan players vs. Chievo.
Toulalan is fit and for the first time this season the hard working midfielder is included in the Malaga squad for this game. Malaga surprisingly lost to Rayo the other day. Seems like the club has not paid their players to the full extent, but if is affecting the players or not, I would not know. What I do know is that Malaga so far have been in fantastic form in Europe, on maximum points and not a single goal conceded. Still my choice will be the home win for this improved Milan side.

Dynamo Kiev - Porto 2.75 - 2.81

It was a much tougher contest in the first leg than I had expected. Porto won the match 3-2 taking the lead three times. There are obviously two sides to Kiev. I mean, they were pretty useless in their previous away game vs. PSG, but we saw that they are capable of in Portugal two weeks ago.
Porto are on maximum points in this group and you cannot argue with that kind of success, can you? Defender Maicon and their midfielder Fernando, both playing from the start in the first encounter, will miss this game, but Rolando, Quino and Iturbe will be available again. Porto need a draw here to be sure of qualifying 1X game.

P S G - Dynamo Zagreb 1.17 - 26.49

Not much of a contest two weeks ago. PSG were totally superior and although Ibrahimovic scored one of the PSG goals I have never seen the Swede missing so man clear cut scoring chances. Zagreb were surprisingly weak and they obviously have some kind of mental block when they are playing on the big scene.
Lavezzi is at last back in PSG squad, but missing tomorrow will be among others Gamerio, Motta, Nene and Chantome. Tonel has not travelled with his Dinamo Zagreb side to Paris. Not much to say and the odds say it all.

Olympiakos - Montpellier 1.91 - 4.75

Although I got it right two weeks ago with Olympiakos winning in France 2-1, I have to admit that I was plain lucky. Montpellier dominated the match and the away win was close to a robbery. On the other hand I one could say the same about the Montpellier unlikely point at Schalke in the previous round. It is football and that is why you have to have the odds on your side. What did the say in the Hunger games? May the odds be with you! Both Jeunechamp and Yanga-Mbiwa will be back for Montpellier.
Olympiakos recently dropped their first domestic league point and they are now 8-1-0 in the Greek league. No Djebbour or Contreras for this game, but Fetfatzidis, Papazoglu and Siovas will be available again for the home side.
Montpellier have won more away games than home fixtures this season and a warning may be on its place ahead of this fixture. I would still back the side experienced on this top European level and that is Olympiakos.

Anderlecht - Zenit 2.88 - 2.74

Two easy recent wins for Anderlecht in the Belgian league. De Sutter scored three goals in their last game. M’bokani will join their squad for this game, but they lose Wasilweski to a suspension.
Both Danny and Denisov are back in the Zenit squad. Both came on as second half substitutes at the weekend at home to Rostov. With these two playing again coach Spalletti has a terrific squad at his disposal. Hulk is injured, but quite frankly, he has not done much right for his new club, not yet anyway. Now the matches are not decided on paper and Zenit were a huge disappointment in the first leg barely winning their home fixture against Anderlecht 1-0. Potentially Zenit are of course a much better side than the Belgians and at the end of the day I am prepared to back the away win.

Milan - Malaga 2.20 - 3.80

Best game of the season for Milan at the weekend. They outclassed Chievo 5-1. Something changed in the second half against Palermo with Milan playing a more offensive game than before this season. They went back to their four man defence using a 4-2-3-1 formation. Bojan has finally come alive and he was one of the best Milan players vs. Chievo.
Toulalan is fit and for the first time this season the hard working midfielder is included in the Malaga squad for this game. Malaga surprisingly lost to Rayo the other day. Seems like the club has not paid their players to the full extent, but if is affecting the players or not, I would not know. What I do know is that Malaga so far have been in fantastic form in Europe, on maximum points and not a single goal conceded. Still my choice will be the home win for this improved Milan side.

Manchester City - Ajax 1.44 - 8.50

How wrong can one be? I could never foresee the Ajax win against Man City in Amsterdam. Not because I thought that City are a fantastic side, or anything like that, but I underestimated the Ajax capacity. Or was it a fluke win? At the weekend Ajax were back in normal form again, losing a domestic home fixture against Vitesse 0-2. One must not forget, however, that Ajax fully deserved their win vs. Man City.
Both J Lescott and J Milner are struggling with injuries and M Richards, D Silva and K Toure will definitely be missing for M City.
Maybe Man City will be able to play a better game in Europe now that they practically have lost their chances of qualifying from this group. I am not impressed by their present form, but I could say the same about of most of their top colleagues in the Premiership this season. I expect City to be the winners tomorrow.

Real Madrid - Borussia Dortmund 1.49 - 8.00

Personally I would rather back this 1.49 on the Real win that 1.44 on the Man City win. Although Borussia just about deserved their home win against Real they do not in my opinion have any winning chance at the Bernabeu Stadium. There is not any team, Barcelona aside, that can match Real Madrid there.
Better looking Real defence this time with Arbeloa and Albiol back, but they will be without the injured Khedira. Xabi Alonso will start again joined by L Modric or Essien in the middle. Benzema is considered a major injury doubt.
The Borussia captain S Kehl has broken his nose, but there is every chance that he will take part in tomorrow’s game wearing a mask. Very likely home win.

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