The Champions League Resumes with Massive Derbies on Friday

The most anticipated moment for European football fans is here, as the Champions League restarts on Friday after a long break. The second leg of the phase of last 16 will be played in the evening, at 8 PM UK time, with Juventus and Manchester City as hosts. The Italians need to recover after losing the first leg, whereas the English side will try to protect a narrow margin victory over Real Madrid.

Juventus Try to Recover after Narrow Margin Defeat

Home pitch advantage has always meant a lot for Juventus who won the vast majority of the games played in front of the fans. On Friday, they will play against Lyon with no fans cheering from the stands, but they should still come on top. bet365 Sports expect them to win and offers odds of 2/5 on the recently crowned Italian champions. Ronaldo is in excellent form and is hungry for trophies, so the Portuguese will be the main threat for the visiting team.

Lyon has achieved a great result in the first leg by claiming a narrow margin victory and preventing Juventus from scoring. Now that they play on the road, they will try to defend the draw and wait for an opportunity to score on the counterattack. The French side is lucky not to have to face the Italian fans in the stands, but is still credited with the second chance. Punters who believe that they can achieve a similar result in Torino will be paid at 13/2, whereas a draw regardless of score benefits from odds of 7/2.

Real Madrid Face Monumental Task Away at Manchester City

Losing to Manchester City at home after scoring the first goal was downright painful for Real Madrid. The Spanish champions find themselves playing with the back at the wall, as they need to reverse that result in England. They always had a hard time picking up points here and they are not expected to do much better on Friday evening at 8 PM UK time. In fact, the odds offered by 888 Sport all the Spanish outfit to prevail stand at 3/1, not to mention that Real Madrid needs to score at least two goals to qualify.

Manchester City was unable to close the gap separating it from Liverpool and finished second in a highly competitive English Premier League. The good news is that they are still in the race for a Champions League trophy and are well-positioned to advance to the quarterfinals. They don’t need victory to move forward, but if they win, punters who bet on it will be paid at odds of 7/10. This game has the potential of turning into a goalscoring festival as Real Madrid is compelled to come out firing on all cylinders.

Disclaimer:

The odds mentioned here were accurate at the featured bookmakers at the hour the article was written, respectively on Thursday, August 5 at 4 pm UK time.