Sports Blog 17/02/2015: Match Preview – UEFA Champions League Last 16, Tuesday 17th February 2015

As the Eurozone continues to descend into crisis, the Champions League returns to try and brighten the spirits of the continent.

What is sure to be the more hotly contested of tonight’s two games, Chelsea travel to the city of love to take on Paris Saint-Germain at 7.45pm on ITV. Currently sitting in 3rd in Ligue 1, level on points with 2nd place Marseille and 2 behind leaders Lyon, PSG aren’t enjoying the rampant success they feel they deserve. However, PSG are undefeated in their past 6 games, and impressively escaped a Champions League group that contained Barcelona and Ajax. 

Even more remarkably, and this is what may intimidate Chelsea, PSG are undefeated in their last 32 home games in Europe. This achievement may be enough to give them the confidence to dismiss the Blues; however, they will have to do it without Yohan Cabaye, Marquinhos, Serge Aurier and Lucas, all who are injured. With these players missing especially, all eyes will be on the formidable skill and ego of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who with 21 goals this season is at 17/4 to score first. Behind him are Edison Cavani on 16 goals at 13/2 and Jean-Christophe Bahebeck on 9 goals at 10/1.



Chelsea will come into tonight’s game well rested, taking no part in the 5th round of the FA Cup after being embarrassingly dumped out by Bradford in January. Sitting 7 points clear at the top of the Premier League and through to the League Cup final, Mourinho’s men are in an enviable position. They managed to top their group above Schalke, and will be buoyed by the return of Diego Costa, their top scorer with 17 goals and at 11/2 to score first; Eden Hazard is on 13 goals at 7/1 with Oscar on 7 goals at 10/1.

Whilst Chelsea narrowly saw off PSG last season on away goals, it was not before suffering a 3-1 defeat at the Parcs des Princes. Given the fortress that is PSG’s home ground and the strength of this Chelsea side, Spreadex are offering a choice PSG/Chelsea Goal Supremacy spread betting quote of -0.1-0.1, with a Total Goals spread of 2.2-2.4. And with both sides containing their fair share of hot-headed figures, Spreadex is offering Player Card Minutes, a spread based on the minute a player is awarded a yellow card in the game, with red cards counting as double. The max make-up per player is 270, and is not offered in-play.

If the PSG/Chelsea game is impossible to call, then the other Champions League game tonight looks like it will be a less tight affair as Bayern Munich travel to Lviv instead of Donetsk to face Shakhtar at 7.45pm on Sky Sports 1. With Shaktar lacking the true home advantage due to the shelling of their stadium amidst the Ukraine crisis, they are in a weakened position in the least opportune time possible. And whilst they may be in second behind Dynamo Kiev in the Ukrainian Premier League, they haven’t actually played competitively in 2015 and will be missing their captain Darijo Srna.

Shaktar did well to escape their group, coming second behind Porto and seeing off Athletic Bilbao in the process, but it may be asking too much too see off Guardiola’s Bayern Munich. If they are to get anything tonight, then Luiz Adriano (14 goals, 8/1), Alex Teixeira (10 goals, 14/1) and Oleksandr Hladkyi (10 goals, 10/1) will have to continue the goal scoring form they found in 2014.



Yet there is perhaps no more imposing sight than Bayern Munich at the moment. 8 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, they are many people’s favourite to not only win tonight, but win the tournament as a whole. In fact, Bayern have won a final, reached a final and got to a semi-final in the last three seasons, and this year managed to top arguably the most difficult group, besting Manchester City, Roma and CSKA Moscow. With half of Germany’s World Cup winning side gracing their squad, it is hard to look beyond the mighty Munich side. Their top four scorers this season alone contain Arjen Robben (16 goals, 4/1), Thomas Muller (13 goals, 7/2), Mario Gotze (13 goals, 9/2) and Robert Lewandowski (11 goals, 4/1).

Yet they aren’t impervious to embarrassment; remember, this is a side that lost 5-0 over 2 legs in last year’s semi-final (yes, granted to Real Madrid), and recently lost 4-1 to Wolfsburg (again, granted they are 2nd in the Bundesliga). Donetsk may get something, but our clients are finding it a hard hope to get behind, heavily fancying a Bayern Munich/Shakhtar Donetsk (h) Goal Supremacy spread betting quote 1.35-1.55, with a Total Goals spread of 2.8-3.