AC Milan V Manchester United
Football : UEFA Champions League
Tuesday 16th February 2010 - Kickoff 7:45pm

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David Beckham and some team he plays for while on his European holidays entertain in-form Wayne Rooney and some Northern outfit you might have heard of ...

AC Milan (Italy)

AC Milan come into what is arguably the biggest tie of the round (although Inter Milan and Chelsea fans might disagree) with a hard fought 3-2 home win over Udinese. That defence will have to do better if they are to keep the in-form United out.

On the injury front, Alexander Pato will come back and unfortunately will probably slot into right midfield, leaving Becks to no doubt make a cameo appearance late in the game.

Milan have scored a whopping 39 goals at home domestically but have given up more than a goal a game in that time too, 24 to be precise.

Alex Ferguson will be licking his lips at the prospect of what his in-form team could do to a side that looked less than solid in last Fridays outing.

If you look only at this season's Champions League performances at home, again it's the same story as they allowed Real Madrid, Marseille and Zurich to all get on the scoresheet. Zurich, in fact, even came away with a 1-0 upset win.

Manchester United (England)

English champions Manchester United will come to Milan with an attack in top form, led by Rooney, who is scoring for fun lately.

Partnering him up front will be Berbatov, who looks like he might get on the scoresheet as most of the attention will be on Rooney. As United showed recently against Arsenal, the team is loaded with players who can run at defences, so an away goal here looks nailed on.

In defence, England Captain Rio Ferdinand will return and help take a clean sheet back to the second leg in Manchester, but this defence is just not that strong to keep a side like Milan out for a whole 90 minutes.

THe Betting Verdict

Both are great attacking teams and not the best defences. I reckon this is going to turn into a goalfest.

Go for plenty of goals to be scored.

The Statistics :

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Both teams to score @ 1.84 (PaddyPower) as the main bet

Consider Over 2.5 goals @ 2.37 (Bet365)

You just have to take a bit of Beckham to score last goal @ 15.00 (also Bet365)

HANDICAP BETTING :

On handicap I prefer Manchester United (+0) @ 1.90 (Pinnacle) which returns your stake in the evnt of a draw.