Barcelona Looking to Repeat as Champions League Winners
Published on September 15th, 2015 11:54 pm ESTBarcelona will formally kick off their Champions League title defense on Wednesday when they travel to take on Roma in their first game of the group stage.
Barcelona will have their impressive array of offensive weapons on display, as Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, Jr. will all be attempting to penetrate the Roma defense.
Barcelona has the edge to win on Wednesday, despite the fact that they will be playing on the road - here are the current betting odds as of this moment:
Roma, 5.50
Draw, 3.60
Barcelona, 1.67
A successful $100 wager on Roma would yield a total profit of $450, while a successful $100 bet on Barcelona would yield a total return of $67.
According to the bookmakers, here are the four likeliest outcomes of Wednesday's match:
Barcelona Wins 1-0, 7.50
Barcelona Wins 2-0, 8.00
Barcelona Wins 2-1, 8.00
Draw 1-1, 8.00
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The bookmakers are expecting a high scoring affair on Wednesday, as evidenced by this over/under line:
Under 2.5 Goals, 1.95
Over 2.5 Goals, 1.80
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Will Roma be able to pull off the upset on Wednesday? According to the oddsmakers, Barcelona is the clear favourite to win the group (1.12), while Roma and Bayer Leverkusen are considered coin flips to advance to the next round of Champions League. For this reason, a big performance from Roma in front of their home fans on Wednesday might be necessary for them to advance to the next round of play.
