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Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Will the summer swapsies of Eto'o for Ibrahimovic bite Barcelona tonight?


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There is always a group of death. Pick a series of at least 4 mini-leagues using the fairest system you can dream up (that simultaneously helps all the richest clubs from the richest footballing leagues) and one will always look nasty. But enough of Group A, where Bayern Munich look likely to be eliminated by the excellent Bordeux side (including several of those nasty French international players) and a resurgent Juventus side - or even Group C where three former European Cup winners, including the two most successful in the tournaments history were bunched together in Real Madrid, AC Milan and Marseille.

Barcelona on the other hand had perennial Euro underachievers Inter Milan, plus an average Dynamo Kiev side and an unknown element in Rubin Kazan. The European champions, top rated side in Europe and hot favourites to retain the trophy were not supposed to struggle in this company. But Barca can go out with a game to spare tonight - and even the Europa League is not guaranteed. If Inter beat Barca and Rubin Kazan beat Kiev then Barca are out - although surely the sponsors will invoke some obscure seeding regulation to maintain their involvement.

Barca have been so toothless in this competition that only four other teams out of the 32 have scored less than the 3 goals that Barca have to date. But surely this is just a sense of theatre and Barcelona will come out and win the game and endanger Inter's chances?

Barcelona are 4/5 favourites, the draw is 12/5 and an Inter win is 19/5.

A Barcelona 2-1 win is 7/1 and despite the dearth of goals in this group this may be a game when both teams score making over 2.5 goals in the game look decent value at 11/10.. After the swapsies in the summer what are the chances that Zlatan Ibrahimovic (10/11 to score* at any time) and Samuel Eto'o (15/8 to score at any time) will be on the scoresheet.

All odds from Bet365, who are currently offering £200 in free bets for people opening new accounts.

*Bets on players not taking part in the match will be void, as will bets where the selection comes on after the first goal is scored, regardless of whether the player scores in the game.

Barcelona recent league form
Athletic Bilbao (a) drew 1-1
Mallorca (h) won 4-2
Osasuna (a) drew 1-1
Real Zaragoza (h) won 6-1

Inter recent league form
Bologna (a) won 3-1
Roma (h) drew 1-1
Livorno (a) drew 0-0
Palermo (h) won 5-3
Catania (h) won 2-1

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Antony Melvin

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