Barcelona enters the second leg of their quarterfinal tie with Manchester United in the Champions League up a crucial away goal, thanks to Luke Shaw’s own goal at Old Trafford last week in the opening leg. That was the only tally for the match, which means that Barcelona is up 1-0 coming home for the second leg. The only way that they would fail to advance to the semifinals would be if Manchester United won at Camp Nou and scored at least two away goals. A 1-0 Manchester United win would send the tie to penalty kicks. Barcelona rested most of their key players when they drew Huesca, 0-0, in a La Liga game rendered primarily meaningless because Barcelona has such a large lead on the table. Can Barcelona advance? Or will Manchester United pull off a huge upset? We have your sports betting odds and the game preview here.
Barcelona vs Manchester United Champions League Lines & Preview
🔜 #BarçaMUFC 📍 Camp Nou 👋 @ManUtd 👍 We’re ready! 🔵🔴 #WeColorFootball pic.twitter.com/F5LrUjB1qE
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 15, 2019
- When: Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 3:00pm ET
- Where: Camp Nou, Barcelona
- TV: TNT
- Radio: None
- Live Stream: fubo.tv
- Opening Soccer Odds: Barcelona -274 / Draw +446 / Manchester United +588
Why should you bet on Barcelona?
One positive from Barcelona’s draw with Huesca was the 67 minutes of play that they saw from Ousmane Dembele, who had been sidelined with a thigh injury. His solid play is encouraging as it means that he should be able to play on Tuesday as well. Barcelona also benefits from the absence of Man United’s Shaw, who despite that own goal is a major contributor for them. He collected his third yellow card in Champions League play in the first leg and will miss the second leg as a result. However, Ander Herrera, Alexis Sanchez and Nemanja Matic have all returned from injury and should be ready to play.
The fact that Manchester United needs to score gives Barcelona an advantage as well. Barcelona has posted clean sheets in three of their last four matches at home against Manchester United, although back in 1998 the two sides did play to a 3-3 draw. In more recent years, Barcelona has been able to shut down the English Premier League side when they come across the Channel to Europe.
Why should you put your money on Manchester United?
Manchester United comes in with slightly more momentum than Barcelona does, as they delivered a 2-1 win over West Ham United in EPL play on Saturday, although they did avoid several juicy scoring chances from West Ham. That win marked an end to an ugly stretch for Manchester United, who had lost twice in three matches against Wolves in EPL play, with their lone win in their previous four matches coming over Watford at home.
If you like Manchester United, you’re relying heavily on intangibles here. You think that Manchester United will put forth the same sort of energy that got them through the Round of 16, but that in the same rush with which they push forward, they will also be able to hold the back line against a Barcelona side that has exploited the mistakes of their La Liga foes all season long. The draw is not a bad bet here, as Barcelona is likely to play very conservatively to move toward advancement, but the mistakes that Man United is likely to make on the back end should lead to Barcelona goals.
Expert Pick and Final Score Prediction
The coaching change at Old Trafford seems to have brought some positives, but the chaos in which Manchester United finds themselves has not dissipated to the point where they can expect to go to Barcelona and take down the La Liga leaders in a match for which Barcelona rested their starters in league play this past weekend. Manchester United will push forward hard, but Barcelona will make them pay. I predict a final score of Barcelona 3, Manchester United 1.
