Champions League Betting – Juve Face Must-Win at Bayern Munich

Juventus (+800) at Bayern Munich (-250), Draw (+400)

Last year’s Champions League runner-up, Juventus, find themselves in a tough spot. They managed a 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Round of 16 playoff with Bayern Munich, but now need to win in Germany to stay alive. Bayern and Juve will square off in the second leg today at Allianz Arena in Munich (2:45 PM Eastern).

Technically, Juve could advance with a high-scoring draw (anything over 2-2), but that’s not going to happen given how well Bayern defend at home. So the Italians are forced to play for the win.

Juve don’t have much reason for optimism. Their team was thoroughly outplayed in the majority of the first meeting, but capitalized on a couple second-half mistakes to level the game. Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben opened the scoring for Bayern; Stefano Sturaro and Paulo Dybala responded for the home team.

Juventus haven’t been all that impressive on the road in UCL play this year, either. They opened with a 2-1 win at Manchester City, but then drew against Borussia Monchengladbach (1-1) and lost to Sevilla (1-0).

Making matters worse, Paulo Dybala and Giorgio Chiellini, two of the Juventus main players, are both suffering from calf injuries. They’re both expected to play, but won’t be at full speed.

Bayern Munich were the favorites in this series from the outset, and the 2-2 draw only solidifies that status. Sure, they’ll be disappointed with letting their two-goal lead slip away, but the brace of away goals will be hard for Juventus to overcome, especially considering that Bayern have won nine straight UCL games at home (outscoring opponents 36-4). Need another reason to roll with the Germans? They’re undefeated in five straight against Juventus (3-2-0).

Pick: Bayern Munich (-250).

(Photo credit: Rufus46 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)