Champions League Betting – PSG at Barcelona

Paris Saint-Germain (+700) at FC Barcelona (-275) (Draw +450)

After downing PSG 3-1 in France (as -110 road favorites), FC Barcelona is 90 minutes away from clinching their seventh trip to the UEFA Champions League semifinals in the last eight seasons. The second leg of their quarterfinals series will take place on Tuesday when PSG travels to the Nou Camp (1:45 PM Eastern).

Barcelona’s 3-1 win in Paris looked like a cake-walk for the Catalans. An inspired Luis Suarez scored twice in arguably his best performance since joining the team.

Despite the commanding lead and having the second leg in Spain, though, Suarez and company aren’t taking victory for granted.

“In football you never know what’s going to happen. They have so much quality, and we need to be aware that this isn’t over. It’ll be a good game”, Suarez said about the second leg.

PSG was unbeaten in their last 24 home games entering the first matchup against Barcelona, but were partly done in by several key absences. David Luiz, Marco Verratti, Thiago Motta, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were all out of the lineup due to either injury or suspension.

They will have striker Ibrahimovic back on Tuesday, but the team has dug itself too deep a whole for even an offensive wizard like Ibra to climb out of.

There is not enough value in taking Barcelona in the moneyline, but you can get Barca (-1) at -100 odds in the handicap, and that looks like the best play.

Pick: Barcelona -1.

(Photo credit: Lluís from Sabadell (Barcelona), España (LFS_13398) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)