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UEFA Champions League Preview: Group Stages Set To Get Underway, With Barcelona In Action

UEFA Champions League Preview: Group Stages Set To Get Underway, With Barcelona In Action

Italian giants Inter Milan host Tottenham, while Liverpool welcome French champions PSG to Anfield

The group stages of the UEFA Champions League – the greatest club competition in club football – is set to kick off this coming Tuesday evening (18 September) with some truly mouth watering clashes. While Spanish champions Barcelona welcome PSV Eindhoven, Tottenham travel to the San Siro to take on Inter and last season’s finalists, Liverpool, welcome Ligue 1 holders PSG.

First things first

Before you go any further, head on over to the Oddsshark website, find your favourite betting site and get your account up and running using your credit card. As a new customer and with the UEFA Champions League set to kick off, there should be a wide range of promotions and special offers available to you.

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First up, Barcelona host Dutch league champions PSV Eindhoven at Campo Nou. The Catalan club exited the continental competition at the quarter-final stage last season after losing to Italian club AS Roma and will be looking to make amends this time around.

Barça have made a perfect start to their La Liga title defence, winning all four of their opening domestic ties and will look to hit the ground running on the continental stage. PSV may well be the underdogs here but they come into this match in excellent form, having scored a whopping 16 goals in their last three matches – that is a rate of over five goals per game.

Nevertheless, it is Barcelona who are red hot favourites to make a winning start to their Champions League campaign and are priced at just 1.11 to do so. To give you an idea of the task facing PSV, the Dutch club are at 26.00 to take the points here.

And we could well see goals in this game between two attacking sides. A 3-1 win for Barcelona is priced at 10.00, while you could also double your money by backing both teams to score at 2.00, according to Oddsshark.

Inter look to make winning start

And following a disappointing start to the latest Serie A campaign, Inter Milan will look to put their domestic woes behind them when they welcome Premier League outfit Tottenham Hotspur to the San Siro on Tuesday evening. Despite spending heavily over the summer transfer window, Inter have won just one of their opening four league encounters, and this past weekend suffered a humiliating 1-0 reverse at home to recently promoted Parma.

Tottenham, meanwhile, are hardly in great form coming into this match either. After a hugely impressive 3-0 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Spurs have lost their two latest league outings in a row and were shambolic at the back this past weekend against Liverpool.

As a result, the betting is close in this one. You could potentially triple your money by backing Inter to take the points at 3.00, with visitors Tottenham the slight favourites to record a win on the road at 2.60 – a draw looks to be the least likely result and is priced accordingly at 3.25.

And with home advantage, we are expecting Inter to just about nick a low scoring affair. A 1-0 win for the Italians is priced at 8.50, meaning that a US$5 bet would lead to a US$42.50 pay out.

Liverpool look to make solid start against PSG

And finally, last season’s finalists, Liverpool, will be hoping for a solid start when they host French league champions PSG. This could be the tie of the round, with both teams having won all games played so far this season.

Liverpool appear to be going from strength to strength under JurgenKlopp, winning all five of their Premier League games so far and sitting second to Chelsea on goal difference only. In addition, the Reds have scored 11 goals at a rate of 2.2 goals per game and will look to carry that offensive prowess into continental competition.

Meanwhile, PSG have plenty of firepower of their own and one thing we can expect on Tuesday night is plenty of goalmouth action. Neymar, EdinsonCavani and KylianMbappe have 11 goals between them already this term and the Liverpool backline will need to be attentive throughout.

And it is Liverpool who come in as the slight favourites to make a winning start to the Champions League group stages. You can more than double your money by backing the Reds at 2.30, with PSG out at 3.10 to take the points at Anfield.

As mentioned above, expect goals. A 2-1 win for Liverpool is priced at 9.00, with over 2.5 goals in the game coming in at just 1.44.

UEFA Champions League group stages:

Tuesday, 18 September

(1.11) Barcelona x PSV (26.00); draw (12.00)

(3.00) Inter Milan x Tottenham Hotspur (2.60); draw (3.25)

(4.75) Club Brugge x Borussia Dortmund (1.72); draw (4.20)

(1.95) Galatasaray x LokomotivMosscow (4.50); draw (3.50)

(2.30) Liverpool x PSG (3.10); draw (3.80)

(5.75) Monaco x Atletico Madrid (1.75); draw (3.60)

(9.00) Red Star Belgrade x Napoli (1.44); draw (4.50)

(2.60) Schalke x Porto (2.90); draw (3.40)

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