Barcelona v Atalanta Match Result
Barcelona are trading at around odds of 1.72 to land a victory for this Champions League clash against Atalanta. In normal circumstances, this would be regarded as a value bet when you consider the Catalan side are one of the strongest in Europe, having won six of their seven clashes in the competition so far.
Scratch a bit deeper and you will see why their odds are bigger than normal. In fact, some would argue that the price should be even larger considering we might well see Barcelona B take to the pitch on Wednesday night. The job is complete as far as reaching the last sixteen is concerned with a seeded status.
Therefore, it’s likely that we’ll see several star players given the night off including veteran forward Robert Lewandowski. After an exciting 5-4 win at Benfica last week, Barca went goal crazy at the weekend when thrashing Valencia 7-1 and it’s now likely that some of the second string will come to the fore.
Atalanta would dearly love to record a top eight spot of their own. They sit seventh in the standings after four wins, two draws and a defeat. There are six teams sitting just a point behind them going into the final round of games, so victory is probably needed at the Nou Camp in order to bag that seeded spot.
La Dea can certainly win this game and their five match winless run recently came to an end with victories over Sturm Graz and Como. They came from behind in the latter encounter and this is a match where they’ll surely look to go on the attack from the off.
Goals Under/Over
According to the Champions League betting odds, Over 2.5 Goals is very likely, with the bookies having this probability around the 70% mark. Whether or not Barcelona field a weakened team, the bottom line is that they’ll look to score goals and the seven goals served up at the weekend is an illustration of their attacking might in front of the net.
Four of Barca’s previous five encounters have gone Over 2.5 and it could be worth looking for bigger odds and going for Over 3.5 instead. There’s a reasonable chance that there will be at least four goals scored, with nine goals and eight goals scored in the past two matches! That comeback against Benfica was completely crazy and this could be another mad scoreline.
Therefore, Over 4.5 Goals could be a decent runner in a clash which could be end to end. It might just come down to which team outscores the other.
BTTS
Both teams to score is regarded as a similar probability to Over 2.5 Goals. This will surely be an open and attacking game, with customers having the option to combine BTTS Yes with the Overs if they want to get a bigger price. The past five encounters featuring Barcelona have all seen both sides scoring, with Benfica managing to put four goals past them before the Catalan side produced an amazing comeback.
However, in that game, Barcelona had an incredible eleven shots on target. Let’s not also forget that they beat Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup when scoring five times and this isn’t a team who will be aiming to make sure of the clean sheet, especially in a clash which is effectively a dead rubber.
Therefore, the BTTS Yes option might be combined with a Barcelona win if you feel strongly that the Catalan side will register a victory. There’s also the fact that Atalanta have scored in their previous four matches and there were five different scorers in their previous Champions League encounter against Sturm Graz.
First Goalscorer
Robert Lewandowski was given the night off in his previous match until the final half hour, with the Pole scoring as part of that 7-1 thrashing of Valencia. It might be that Hansi Flick gives him a rest again here, although it wouldn’t be a surprise if he started the game and it’s now been twenty-nine goals for the evergreen forward.
He was on target with two of the five goals scored at Benfica last week and is now in a goals race with Raphinha who is having a real breakthrough season for the club. The former Leeds winger has bagged six goals in his previous five encounters, with the Brazilian lasting an hour at the weekend.
Perhaps Pau Victor will be given the chance to impress and the young Spaniard could take his chance to shine, while Ansu Fati is working his way back to full fitness and could feature. For the visitors, Ademola Lookman was the star man in last season’s Europa League final and the Nigerian has two goals in his previous three encounters.