CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - Wednesday, April 5

[MarkieMark+]

Here are my picks for today:

BENFICA (+1.5) +105 over Barcelona (Pinnacle)
No question that Barcelona is a better team than Benfica and, quite possibly, the best club team in the world at the moment but Benfica are being given no chance and I think we could be in for a surprise. A 1.5 goal handicap is a lot for a tricky Benfica team that beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield.

ARSENAL (+0.5) -112 over Juventus (Pinnacle)
Juventus will be missing Viera, Del Piero, Camoranesi and Zebina, which is already bad enough, but the pace and skill of Henry will not be any less just because this game is being played in Turin. Arsenal have also been solid in defense and an unimaginative Juventus will have trouble breaking through. At best, I think Juventus will manage a Draw at home and that will make this bet a WINNER.

MM

 

[chriscol]

i ve no opinion on the arsenal game besides arsenal qualifying for next round, but i definetely like barca -1.5. they will break out of their scoring slump tonight. Nuno Gomez got injured on saturday and will be out..without him benfica is just a mediocre team..i see no chance for them.

 

[HPark1]

MM did you watch the first leg of Barca/Benfica? I haven't seen much of Benfica but in that game they looked dreadful. It was a true miracle Barcelona didn't score at least three goals. Every attacking move from the Spanish side threatened the what I thought was a solid defense of Benfica. Benfica did play better in the 2nd half and created a few quality chances themselves but as a whole I'd say the score should've been 3/4-1.

They're going to need a serious improvement to avoid a comprehensive beating.

 

[MarkieMark+]

Arsenal suffocated a VERY unimaginative Juventus. 0-0 FT

Barcelona squeaked out a late 2nd goal in the 88th minute to kill my handicap - bastards. 2-0 FT

 

[JackDee]

good call on arsenal mark, bad beat with barca.