This Tuesday evening sees the start of the third round of games from the Champions League group stages and there are some important games playing already despite there being another trio of matches to play before we find out who makes the knockout stages of the competition. The biggest of the games happens in North London as point-less Arsenal welcome the might of Germany in Bayern Munich to The Emirates Stadium knowing that defeat will surely see them goners.
The home team are the big outsiders, but can they upset the form book and the odds to keep their chances alive? We preview this match along with Dinamo Kyiv v Chelsea and Leverkusen v Roma with online sports book Betfair.com for our Tuesday Champions League picks.
Arsenal v Bayern Munich: 4.00 – 3.80 – 1.95
Arsene Wenger’s men come into this third Group F match backed into a corner and running short on ammunition as their first two matches have seen them concede five goals as they were beaten away in Croatia by Dinamo Zagreb before Olympiakos claimed all three points in the English capital with a 3-2 victory. They now face one of the giants of the game in a must win match and they’ll have to keep out the most in-form striker in Europe, in Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, if they’re to do so. Is this an impossible task for The Gunners?
If they are to get anything from this match, with a point the minimum that they’ll need to take from this game before travelling to Munich in two weeks time, they will need both their players and manager to be at the top of their games. Players such as Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Oliver Giroud can all cause Bayern problems but if Wenger makes more odd selection choices, such as resting Petr Cech in goal, then all hope will be lost.
Bayern have the history on this ground with 2-0 and 3-1 wins here during the 2013/14 and 2012/13 seasons, and with them having scored 19 goals in their five matches before arriving in North London we expect the German side, who are top of this group and already seven points clear in the Bundesliga, to take advantage of an Arsenal backline that has been suspect in Europe this season to take all three points.
Back Bayern Munich to defeat Arsenal @ 1.95 with Betfair.com.
Dinamo Kyiv v Chelsea: 2.87 – 3.30 – 2.62
Chelsea are another Premier League side that have been having major problems this season as they travel to the capital of Ukraine having 11 points in the EPL to sit mid-table whilst defending their title and they are behind both this evening’s hosts and Porto following defeat in Portugal to manager Jose Mourinho’s former side three weeks ago. They will see this match as chance to get themselves back towards the top of Group G, but are they consistent enough to follow up this weekend’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa with a win against the side sitting second in the Ukraine Premier League?
After six wins to nil in all competitions, including winning 2-0 in Israel against Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Champions League, Dinamo had their fine run shattered at the weekend as they were demoted to second place domestically as they were beaten 3-0 by Shakhtar Donetsk. Bar several defeats to Shakhtar no other team has won on this ground since Valencia triumphed here 2-0 in February 2014 and with Chelsea having beaten only third tier Walsall on their travels in two months the home team will be confident about this match.
However, we feel that Chelsea are massively unpredictable this season as they can go from playing like champions to being appalling from game to game this match could go either way, just as the odds suggest. Both sides have been scoring goals of late and recent games have seen goal filled games, as five of the last six at home for Dinamo and all of the last six on the road for Chelsea have seen at least three goals scored, and with both teams desperate to take all three points we can see these patterns continuing.
We are backing +2.5 goals in this Group G clash at odds of 2.10 in the Betfair Sportsbook!
Bayer Leverkusen v Roma: 1.95 – 3.70 – 4.00
The BayArena hosts this Group E confrontation between two teams playing catch up with Barcelona in one of the tightest groups around. The Spaniards are top of the group with four points while Leverkusen and Belarusian side BATE Borisov are a point behind with three with Serie A side Roma propping up the rest having claimed just a single point so far. Both teams are coming off away defeats in this competition and will be massively motivated to avoid being cast adrift with back to back Champions League losses. Who’ll avoid that fate though?
Bayer have won six of their last seven home Champions League matches, including beating Atlético Madrid last season, and have won both of their home games in this competition this season by three goals with Lazio and BATE suffering 3-0 and 4-1 losses. They have lost just one of six clashes on home soil in front of their own fans this season in all competitions while Roma come into this match with two defeats in their last three away games, with seven goals conceded. The omens (and the odds) point to a home win in Germany, but with Roma having scored seven goals in the timeframe they have conceded this amount as well as their being 15 goals in the four matches from Group E already we feel that there is much better value on goals in this match.
Our top Bayer Leverkusen v Roma tip is +2.5 goals to be scored at the BayArena @ 1.80 with Betfair.
Top Tip:
If we were to choose just one of these trio of bets from the best games being played around Europe this evening it would be Bayern Munich to beat Arsenal at odds of 1.95 with Betfair.com. The reason for this is that the Germans are in fantastic form with 11 wins in 11 matches this season, they have Robert Lewandowski firing in goals with 16 in 12 this season while Arsenal have been leaking goals in Europe this season. The home side will be tighter for this match, but the Germans will once again have too much class and will take the three points.
Top Tip – Back Bayern Munich to beat Arsenal at odds of 1.95 with Betfair.com.