Bet on the 2010 Champions League Semi Finals

Inter Vs Barca (1st Leg, Tuesday the 20th of April 2010)

The mighty Barcelona arrived in Milan yesterday afternoon after a 10 hour plus coach trip amid the volcanic ash disruption to over half of western Europe’s air space. Personally, I don’t think this will have any adverse effect on the game itself. Mourinho and his Inter team will still have a game and a half ahead of them. Road trip or no road trip. Mourinho will need every ounce of that tactical prowess to puncture Barcelona’s dreams of winning the Champions League for a second year in succession.

Inter haven’t won the Champions League in it’s restructured format (although, they won the European Cup, twice, back in 64 and 65) and it’s no secret that one of Mourinho’s tasks when he took over the reigns of Internazionale was to deliver the Champions League. Tonight, he’ll take a step nearer that feat, when Inter and Milan meet at the San Siro for the 1st leg of the Champions League Semi Finals.

Champions League betting favourites, Barcelona, head coach, Pep Guardiola, must be the most confident man on the planet when you have Lionel Messi in absolutely blistering form. The Catalonian side disassembled Arsenal’s chances of winning the trophy in the Quarter Finals and have a win and a draw already under their belts against Inter in the Champions League group stage.

I think a draw looks certain tonight, Mourinho will nullify Barcelona and will look to stealing it at the Nou Camp. However, if Inter get nervous and Barca steal an early goal, then Mourinho will be forced to attack more and we might have a decent game on our hands, but don’t count on it.

#market(interbarcasemi2010)#

Bayern Munich vs Lyon (1st Leg, Wednesday the 21st of April 2010)

Manchester United will be licking their wounds when they watch this one kick off on Wednesday evening. Bayern Munich, however, couldn’t care less about the feelings of the red side of Manchester. They will have enough to contend with Lyon playing in their own backyard.

The German side has a decent record against French teams in the Champions League although they were beaten twice this year by Bordeaux in the group stages. Interestingly, Lyon were Bordeaux’s conquerors in the Quarter Finals. In fact, the German club have been on a bit of a scoring sensation since their dramatic draw at Old Trafford. Over the weekend, Arjen Robben, netted his first hat-trick as Munich demolished Hannover 7-0 and go 2 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga.

Lyon will be hoping to the put the tag of “underachievers” firmly to bed this season. This time they have beaten their previous best of Champions League Quater-Finalists and with the Ligue 1 title looking as though it is heading to Marseille, they’ll be going all-out to pin their hopes on Champions League success.

Much like Barcelona, Lyon took a road trip to Munich unable to fly in the ash-infested skies above, however, unlike Barcelona, Lyon travelled in a clutch of mini-vans instead of a top-of-the-range coach.

I don’t expect a tight game on this one, Bayern are peaking at the right moment and should be too strong for Lyon. I expect Bayern to win this one by two clear goals.

#market(bayernlyonsf2010)#