Champions League Betting – FC Porto at Bayern Munich
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:39 am ESTPublished:
FC Porto (+800) at Bayern Munich (-275) (Draw +450)
Manager Joseph Guardiola’s job is hanging in the balance as his team, Bayern Munich, heads into the second leg of their quarterfinal Champions League series with Porto trailing 3-1. The dominant German squad now needs at least a 2-0 victory when they host Porto at Allianz Arena in Munich today (13:45 PM Eastern).
Despite coming into the game as -142 road favorites, the Bavarians went down 2-0 early on goals by Ricardo Quaresma (3′ (pen), 10′) before Thiago Alcántara (28′) responded for the Germans with an important away goal. Jackson Martinez (65′) scored the only goal of the second half for Porto.
As if trailing by two goals isn’t bad enough, Bayern Munich is now dealing with internal strife after the setback. Guardiola seems to be losing the locker room, blaming his medical staff for the loss in Portugal.
Long-time team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt resigned after the game, stating, “After the Champions League match of Bayern Munich against Porto the medical department was for some inexplicable reason made primarily responsible. The bond of trust is damaged.”
Guardiola explained his actions thus: “We have players who were out a long time with injuries … their legs don’t last very long,” noting that the 3-1 loss was “a tough result to take into the second leg.”
Whoever is to blame for the loss, the end result is that Porto now have a great chance to earn their third trip to the Champions League semifinal; they won the tournament the two previous times they reached the final four.
“We come into this tie being able to enjoy what we have accomplished and aiming to give our best in both games, as we always do,” said Porto manager Julian Lopetegui.
Porto have visited Bayern Munich twice before in their history, losing one and earning a draw in the other. They were able to score at least a goal both times. If the high-scoring Portuguese squad is able to pot another away goal today, the task for Bayern becomes all the tougher. But in terms of the moneyline, look for a desperate Bayern team to come away with the win.
Pick: Bayern Munich (-250).
(Photo credit: terceroinf fmiralcamp (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
