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UEFA Champions League Odds – AS Roma vs Bayern Munich

Zack Garrison

by Zack Garrison in News

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:40 AM PST

The UEFA Champions League is back for the third set of fixtures. One of the most intriguing matches this week features AS Roma battling Bayern Munich for top spot in Group E. The game goes today at Olympic Stadium in Rome at 2:45 p.m. Eastern.

Roma and Bayern have met four times in the past, and the Germans dominate the series with three wins and only one loss. That trend looks like it will continue as the Bavarians are favorites to win, listed at -105 in the moneyline. The Giallorossi are +280, and the draw is +250.

After two matches, Bayern and AS Roma sit in first and second place, respectively, in Group E. So far, Pep Guardiola’s Bayern squad has the maximum six points (2W, 0D, 0L) and a +2 goal difference. Meanwhile, AS Roma has four points (1W, 1D, 0) and a +4  differential.

After Bayern’s away victory over CSKA Moscow (0-1) in their last Champions League match, Guardiola said that Moscow’s defense made for a difficult game, but that he was happy with his team’s performance.

“It’s never easy. It wasn’t easy 50 years ago, and it will still not be easy in 50 years, to play against a team with 11 players at the back – they only defend and that’s difficult. But we adapted. I am happy about the way we interpreted the game. There were very few counterattacks, but that cost us because it wasn’t easy. But here we are, with three more points in this difficult group – six points out of six and the first victory in an away game. So we’re on the right track”.

In their last match, AS Roma picked up a valuable point playing away against Manchester City (1-1). After falling behind early, Roma captain and ageless wonder Francesco Totti leveled the score in the second half. The 38-year-old’s goal made him the oldest player to ever score in the Champions League, breaking Ryan Giggs’ record.

Coach Rudi García said that he believes Roma is the best team in the group and are ready to fight any adversary.

“We have shown tonight that we are at the top of this group; we’ve played against the champions of England. Of course, it wasn’t easy to [go behind early on] but we have a good team and took advantage of our good moment,” said the coach.

Roma is playing good soccer but are not yet at the level of Bayern Munich, who should leave Italy with a win.

(Photo credit: Warrenfish [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] via Wikimedia Commons.)

 

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