Champions League preview: Eintracht Frankfurt vs Napoli & Liverpool vs Real Madrid
Eintracht Frankfurt vs Napoli
Eintracht are having a pretty good season, within five points of leaders Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga title race. Still, the German side may have met their match in this encounter.
Napoli are 15 points clear at the top of Serie A, and in the Champions League won five of their six group stage ties. The side have lost one domestic match all season, in a 19-match run made up of 18 wins.
Luca Spalletti’s team are 11/1 shots to win the Champions League – that’s the same price as Liverpool and Real Madrid – and the Italian outfit are playing with such confidence it might be worth taking a punt on them to win the whole shebang.
Before that, can they claim an away win at the Deutsche Bank Park on Tuesday night? You’d think the Naples side can outmuscle last season’s Europa League champions; Eintracht were beaten 3-0 at home by Sporting Lisbon back in September.
Napoli are 5/4 to win here. Victor Osimhen might be worth backing to find the net for the visitors, too; he’s scored 19 goals in 23 appearances so far this season, with six in his last five appearances in Serie A. Osimhen is 4/1 to score the opener.
Liverpool vs Real Madrid
Liverpool have found cause for optimism in the last couple of weeks, routinely dispatching Everton and following that up this weekend by inflicting Newcastle’s second defeat of the season.
Is that enough to mean the Merseyside team will be back to their fearsome best for this encounter? Well, Klopp’s side have actually fared pretty well in the Champions League this season, winning five of their six matches.
Then again, they played pretty well against Real Madrid in last season’s final – and still ended up losing to the Spanish side.
When this side entertained Real at Anfield two years ago, it ended goalless; before that, back in 2014, Liverpool lost 3-0 at home to the Madrid side. In the last six meetings between the sides, Liverpool have failed to win. Will this be different?
Real have not been at their sharpest this season, and trail Barcelona in the La Liga by eight points. That said, the Spanish side are in generally good nick, winning the Fifa Club World Cup against Al-Hilal earlier this month, for whatever that’s worth.
Real have won the Champions League five times in ten years
More pertinently, Real’s brilliant record in the Champions League is not to be underestimated; they’ve won the competition five times in the last ten years.
Karim Benzema didn’t figure in Real’s win against Osasuna at the weekend, and has had problems with injuries this season. But he is expected to be fit for this match, according to reports from Spain. And the French forward has continued to score when he does play, with 10 goals in his last 11 appearances.
Whoever’s on the pitch though, this could be a tight one; the last two meetings between these sides have produced just one goal.
At this point last year, Real lost at the Parc des Princes by one goal to Paris Saint-Germain; the year before that, they won their opening round of 16 clash 1-0 against Atalanta.
Under the circumstances, backing under 2.5 goals at 21/20 doesn’t seem a bad approach; Real will presumably hope to limit any possible damage, and look to get the job done at the Bernabeu…
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