Bayern Munich V Fiorentina
Football : UEFA Champions League
Wednesday 17th February 2010 - Kickoff 7:45pm

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German giants Bayern Munchen will make their return to the UEFA Champions League after a 1 year absence, entertaining surprise knock-out stage opponents Fiorentina at the Allianz Arena. Understandably, the Bavarian side have been priced as clear favourites.

Bayern Munich (Germany)

Bayern will be looking to atone for letting down their fans in previous years. With the last Champions League trophy being lifted a distant 10 years ago after an enthralling penalty shootout against Valencia, the once dominant team went meekly out in the first stage 2 years ago, and missed out completely last year after a disasterous domestic season.

Bayern, despite being on a very impressive domestic run of 15 unbeaten matches, including wins in the last 9, only just squeezed into the last 16 of the Champions League.

In the group phase, they got tonked by French champions Bordeaux home and away and needed a herculean effort in the last game at Juventus, the game being won 1-4. That win was the start of a sharp improvement in their performances and they have not looked back since.

With quality all over the pitch, Bayern have banged in 24 goals in their last 7 games and they will no doubt continue with that form and put a fair few past Fiorentina to make this tie safe before the 2nd leg.

Fiorentina (Italy)

I'm still scratching my head as to how Fiorentina made it this far, despite having to deal with Liverpool and Lyon in the group phase.

The truth is that after struggling even with lowly Debrecen, the Italians managed to capitalise on the disaster that is Liverpool's current season to get within touching distance, beating the ex-champions both home and away. They then rode a win against already qualified Lyon to make it into the last 16.

Fiorentina's current form really is ugly. Get this, their last win was against Bari on 10th January, more than a month ago. They have since lost 4 of the 5 games they've played. When you look only at their away form, their last 6 games have netted exactly 1 win.

The Viola attack is seriously hampered by the absence of Romanian ex-Chelsea star Adrian Mutu, and the less said about the defence the better.

Fiorentina has let the opposition score in all 3 away games in the Champions League, and domestically are on an 8 game run without keeping a clean sheet.

The betting Verdict :

The Germans will be licking their chops and should win this first leg by a couple of goals.


The Picks

The Statistics :

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Over 2.5 goals @ 1.80 (Bet365) main bet

Small fun bet on Ribery to score anytime @ 2.87 (Bet365)

HANDICAP BETTING :

Bayern Munich (-1) @ 1.90 (Bet365) looks zehr gut to me.