Champions League Betting – Juventus vs. Borussia Dortmund
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Juventus (+110) vs. Borussia Dortmund (+275) (Draw +240)
While Man City and Barcelona do battle in England, Borussia Dortmund will travel to Italy to face Juventus in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 tomorrow (2:45 p.m. Eastern).
Dortmund are having a season to forget in the German Bundesliga, sitting 12th in the table. However, in the UEFA Champions League, they cruised through the Group Stage, going 4-1-1 and besting Arsenal on goal difference for top spot in Group D.
Tomorrow, they will face a Juventus team that is having a somewhat converse season. “Juve” are first in Serie A, nine points clear of their closest competitor; but the team had its struggles in the Group Stage of the Champions League, posting a 3-1-2 record and edging Olympiakos by just one point for second place in Group A.
Despite Dortmund’s domestic league struggles, Juventus director Pavel Nedvěd knows his squad will be facing a very dangerous team.
“They might be going through a disappointing spell in the Bundesliga, but they will recover from that because they have shown in Europe that they have a dangerous team and they have produced some great performances [this season]. So we will face them with all due respect,” said Nedvěd.
On the other side, the chief executive of BVB, Hans-Joachim Watzke, sees tomorrow’s game as a coin-flip.
“Absolutely [it’s a difficult task], but it’s not like we stand no chance either. Juve are at the top of the Italian League with Roma, but nevertheless we have our own qualities too and we won our group; Juve didn’t. It will be a 50-50 game. We shouldn’t think too much about it. Both teams have a good chance to make it to the quarter-finals, it will be a close one,” said Watzke.
In the moneyline, the Italians are the slight favorite to win, listed at +110, while the visitors are +275, and the draw +240. Juve is also favored by a goal in the handicap.
The player props for tomorrow’s game have Juve’s Carlos Tevez as the favorite to score the first goal (+333), followed by Fernando Llorente (+550) and Alvaro Morata (+600). Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and playmaker Marco Reus are at +750.
These teams have met three times before in the Champions League and Dortmund lead the series with two wins and one loss. One of those wins came in the 1997 final when Dortmund won the trophy in Munich.
(Photo credit: Ver en vivo En Directo (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.
