on tuesday and wednesday of next week, the uefa champions league returns with four thrilling first leg quarter-finals. craig shakespeare’s leicester city are the only english team left in the competition, as they travel to atletico madrid on wednesday.
meanwhile, borussia dortmund host monaco, whilst barcelona make the trip to juventus on tuesday. the standout tie of the round takes place on wednesday, as giants bayern munich and real madrid lock horns at the allianz arena.
with our live odds comparison, tips, best odds, analysis and predictions, we’ll be doing our best to help you to a profit betting on the champions league.
incredibly, borussia dortmund and monaco have never met, but the two square off at the signal iduna park on tuesday in a huge champions league quarter-final. thomas tuchel’s dortmund currently occupy fourth place in the bundesliga. monaco, meanwhile, sit pretty at the top of ligue 1.
to be fair to both, these two have done exceptionally well to reach the final four. dortmund topped their group ahead of real madrid, whilst leonardo jardim’s monaco have beaten tottenham hotspur and manchester city to make the quarters. there’s not a lot to split these two, which should make for a fascinating matchup on tuesday.
with the game taking place in dortmund, tuchel’s boys are the clear favourites with the bookies to take a first leg lead to the stade louis ii. william hill are offering 4/6 for a home win. a monaco victory is available at 4/1 (betvictor), with the draw coming in at 10/3 with sporting bet.
however, the black and yellows will be hoping to make the most of being at their fortress westfalenstadion. therefore, check out william hill’s 4/6 for a dortmund win.
also on tuesday, luis enrique takes his barcelona side to turin to play massimiliano allegri’s juventus. both teams head into this heavyweight clash in fine fettle, and we’re predicting fireworks between the pair.
this one is an extremely tough one to call, even the bookies are having a hard time splitting the two. it’s not often that barca go into a match as second favourites, but looking at juve’s phenomenal home record, you can see why the hosts are the slight favourites. the best odds you can get on an away victory are 9/5 (william hill).
the old lady have won 19 of 21 home matches in all competitions, including their last nine consecutive games at the juventus stadium. juve, who are miles ahead at the top of serie a, will back themselves to make the most of being on home soil. allegri’s boys are priced at 17/10 with sporting bet.
however, as we touched on, we’re really struggling to pick a winner in this gigantic clash, so we’re sitting on the fence and predicting a draw. bet365 are offering 23/10 for these two to cancel each other out in turin.
leicester city have done a truly remarkable job to reach the quarter-finals of the champions league, but they will be hoping their journey does not end here. as difficult a task as it will be, the foxes could have done worse than playing atletico madrid over two legs.
diego simeone’s men have not been their usual selves this term, as they trail rivals real madrid by 10 points in la liga. the same can be said about the english champions, although they have vastly improved under shakespeare.
the foxes go into this one as the 11/1 underdogs with coral, but they have defied the odds for the past 18 months. atletico are expected to take a lead to england, with bet365 pricing a home win at just 1/3. sporting bet are offering 17/4 for this one to end all square.
leicester have won all six of their matches since shakespeare replaced claudio ranieri, but we believe they will struggle to contain atletico’s fine attack on wednesday. because of that, we think there’s good value in betway’s 19/20 for los rojiblancos to win -1 at the vicente calderon stadium.
saving the best for last, carlo ancelotti’s bayern munich square off against zinedine zidane’s real madrid at the allianz arena this wednesday evening. both bayern and real sit pretty at the top of their domestic leagues, and both will be desperate to reach the semi-finals of the champions league.
these two are no strangers to reaching the latter stages of europe’s elite competition. los blancos have won the cl in two of the last three seasons, whilst fc hollywood have reached the semi-finals in each of their last five cl campaigns. last year, real beat rivals atletico in the milan final to win their 11th european cup title.
being the home side, the bavarians are the favourites to seal a first leg win, with betfair offering odds of 17/20. bayern have won 17 and drawn three of their 20 league and cup matches at the allianz arena this term.
as for real, they have only been beaten twice on the road all season. according to our live odds comparison, the best odds you can get on zidane’s men to win in munich are 15/4 with betway. meanwhile, the draw is available at the very tempting price of 29/10 (betvictor).
with so much attacking threat in both sides, we’re expecting an open game in germany. a draw would be a decent result for the champions of europe, and we feel they are good enough to get one. therefore, make the most of betvictor’s 29/10 for this clash to end all square.