Arsenal - Monaco, 1/8 Final, 1st leg

Bonjour lads,
So, yesterday talks weren't all nonsense, although that was quite devastating when Suarez scored his first goal on 16th minute, just 20 seconds later then it was needed. The others thoughts were spot on, which is still considered to be profitable result at the end of the day.

Today's fixtures are far less exciting with obvious underdogs.
So without any further ado let's get to it.

Arsenal - Monaco.
The season, which at its very beginning (June-July to be exact) promised to be loud success in the domestic championship turned out to be the ordinary one, where Monaco competing for place in Europa League for the next year. But given that they lost their  brilliant Colombians Falcao and James (wow, that's a lot of firepower) it barely got anyone by surprise. Nobody expected them to advance to play-off and yet they managed it thanks to brilliant defensive play. They conceded 1 (one) goal at the group stage. And their current form isn't bad either.

Arsenal, on the other hand, advance in play-off round in 15th consecutive years. During four last seasons they weren't able to go any further than 1/8. They won 8 out last 9 games in EPL and being absolute delight to watch. In the light of key players recoveries from injuries they look very self-confident now. Due to the injuries Debuchy, Arteta, Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain will be missing today.

I expect typical lower total game, where nobody can afford to pay for mistakes.
Now to the picks:

Only one team to score in the game

Arsenal to score first.

 Total goals less then 3.






That's it for today. Enjoy the game!

 

 

Manchester City - Barcelona, 1/8 Final, 1st leg

Long, probably, the most awaited game of this round finally happens today.

Making a bet just a week ago would be the easiest decision you had to make. Given the dire performance of Man City during quite some time in EPL and spectacular Barca's winning streak (matching Pep-team best streak of 11 consecutive victories) it was clear that City was nowhere near to equal to Spanish contender. But last weekend seeded a reasonable doubt regarding Barca's transcendence over City, so lets try figure out what to expect today.

This season Barcelona made noticeable transition from tiki-taka to fast, aggressive vertical football with counter attacks, where ball control is no longer crucial for the game. And City (aka English Barca...okay, not that common..All right, I just made it up, but just because of Blue's style with lots of ball possession and through passing) in some way might benefit from theirs experience facing a lot of domestic teams playing, or at least trying to play like that.

I think we will see a high pressure from City during first 15 minutes. If they score they'll park bus and play counter attacks (and they have resources to do so. With Aguero, Silva and Nasri). But if Barcelona scores first this where it comes interesting, City will be forced to play open game and I don't see them standing a chance against Messi, Neymar and Suarez. Remembering  that YaYa Toure will miss the game due to his disqualification he got against CSKA I still have very little doubts about positive result for Barcelona, where a tie, other than 0-0, also considered to be the success.


So, to the picks:

Barcelona scores over 1.5 goals total.

 

First goal of the game scored 1-15 minutes.

Both team to score in the game.

Good luck and enjoy the game!