The second part of the first matchday of Champions League action will happen on Wednesday. Teams from Groups E thru Group H will all take the pitch for their first games of the 2018-19 Champions League. Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus, and Manchester City will all be action, so let’s highlight a couple of those matches.
The Champions League Group Stage will last from September 18 to December 2. There will be eight groups with four teams in each group, and the top two teams in each group will advance to the Round of 16. Check out all the action this week at BookMaker.
UEFA Champions League Group Stage Betting Odds at BookMaker.eu
Juventus -108
Valencia +316
Draw +233
Over/Under 2.5
Valencia have returned to the Champions League for the first time in three years, and they are looking to perform better than they did the last time they were here. Many had Valencia pegged as the favorites in a group with Racing Gent, Lyon, and Zenit St. Petersburg, but they lost both legs to Zenit and split with the other two teams and failed to get out.
This offseason, Valencia acquired some nice pieces that they hope will lead to Champions League success. They grabbed Goncalo Guedes from Paris Saint-Germain to provide a spark to the offense and youngster Mouctar Diakhaby from Lyon to shore up the defense. Valencia also added two very good players on loan, grabbing Denis Cheryshev from Villarreal and Michy Batshuayi from Chelsea.
However, that pales in comparison to what Juventus did during the offseason. This club is going for broke in the Champions League, and they brought in Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid, Leonardo Bonucci from AC Milan, Emre Can from Liverpool, and they made Douglas Costa’s loan permanent. They also grabbed Joao Cancelo from Valencia, and this will be his first game against his old mates.
It’s taken some time for this club to come together though. Juventus are on top of Serie A, but their play hasn’t been too inspiring considering the level of talent on the roster. Additionally, Ronaldo is in search of his first goal, and you can tell he’s starting to press a little bit to try and get on the scorer’s sheet. He has always shined in the Champions League though.
Roma +581
Real Madrid -263
Draw +431
Over/Under 3.5
A tall task for AS Roma looks even more difficult now that it appears three of their starters will be out for this match. Patrick Schick and Javier Pastore were both considered very likely to miss the match with Real Madrid a few weeks ago, and now defender Kostas Manolas seems as if he will miss the match as well. He picked up an injury for Greece over the international break, and his status is up in the air.
Real Madrid have no such injury worries. The defending champions have historically thrived in the Champions League, with almost double the number of titles as the next closest team. Even without Ronaldo, they have continued to look sharp and Gareth Bale is coming into his own. He has been splendid through Real Madrid’s first few games, and he has paired often with Karim Benzema to make for a lethal duo.
New signing Thibaut Courtois has looked sharp in his first couple games in net for the club too. Courtois was brought in from Chelsea to replace Klaus Navas, even though Navas came up big multiple times in the Champions League last season.
It will be hard for Roma to knock off Real Madrid, but if they do Edin Dzeko is likely to play a big role. Dzeko came on strong at the tail end of the Champions League last year, and he is often tasked with creating something out of nothing. Roma will look to defend, but they will have a hard time keeping this side out of the net.
UEFA Champions League Odds
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