Stuttgart V Barcelona
Football : Europe : UEFA Champions League
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 - Kickoff 7:45pm

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The defending champions have been handed a favourable draw and are huge favourites to progress. Both teams come in on great form, with dominant wins over domestic opponents at the weekend.

Stuttgart (Germany)

Jens Lehmann will come face to face with Barcelona again, this time led in attack by old team mate Thierry Henry. The last time Lehmann faced the Spanish champions he was sent off within the first 20 minutes of the Champions League final, and one can expect him to have another tough day at the office here.

Stuttgart started the season poorly, becoming early relegation candidates. But since the winter break, they have turned things around, located their scoring boots and have been matching the form of German teams at the other end of their domestic table.

In their last match, Stuttgart travelled to Koln and destroyed the hosts by a 5-1 margin. Indeed, this team has won 6 of their last 7 matches, losing only once since the end of November.

Manager Christian Gross has got his side playing confident football right now, and they have a pacy midfield and forward line up that breaks explosively from defence to attack.

With injuries in the Barca defence, they will no doubt throw caution to the wind and try to capitalise at home. Keep an eye out for Cacau, who bagged 4 on the weekend, and Hiber, who will have a point to prove to Barca, seeing as they loaned him to Stuttgart till the end of the season.

Barcelona (Spain)

The La Liga leaders are in staggering form, winning 18 of 23 domestically. They bounced back from their first loss of the season by thumping Racing Santander 4-0, the goals coming via Messi and a brace from Iniesta and ex-Arsenal legend Thierry Henry.

On injuries, Xabi and Keita have been ruled out of the tie at the Mercedez-Benz Arena. More worryingly, the defence will severely weakened by the absence of Alves and Abidal. The last time Barca played a counterattacking side like Stuttgart was away at Atletico Madrid, and they suffered their first loss there. The high-tempo breaks of Stuttgart will surely result in at least 1 goal against a makeshift Barca defence.

Ibrahimavoc was missing against Santander but is expected to be available for selection this week in Europe. Between Henry, Messi, Iniesta and him, I would expect to see at least a couple of goals scored.

Barca will bombard the opposing goal in the event they fall behind to a suddenly resurgent Stuttgart attack, and if they take a lead, as one would imagine, they will no doubt use the same tactic in order to kill the tie on away goals before the 2nd leg in Barcelona in 2 weeks time.

The Betting Verdict :

We have an underdog looking to capitalise on a weakened opposing defence in order to keep up with their opponents, who score goals for fun.

Expect a lot of goals, with Barca coming out on top.

The Statistics :

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take OVER 2.5 goals @ 1.72 (Bet365) main bet

Also, try Henry to score at any time @ 2.75 (Bet365)

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Barcelona AH(-1) @ 2.15 (Bet365)