Barcelona - Stuttgart
Football: Champions League. 1/8 finals, 2nd leg.
Wednesday, 17th March 2010. Kickoff 20:45

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Barcelona

Catalan club is preparing to easily stroll into the quarter finals of the Champions League after the first match in Stuttgart finished 1-1. Barcelona’s form has not been too convincing lately, what can’t be said though about Leo Messi.

The Worlds’ best player has made a hat-trick on Sunday and single handedly dispatched Valencia at Camp Nou. Prior to that the Argentinean ace had scored 2 goals against Almeria on the road in the disappointing draw, which allowed Real Madrid to come level on points with the Catalan giants.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Seydou Keita are both back in Guardiola’s disposal for this match. The Swedish target-man was obviously missed in the first half of the week-end clash against Valencia. His presence gives Guardiola the much required variety. Captain Carles Puyol is looking to become the only absentee from the squad, so the defensive quartet should be the same as on Sunday.

Expected formation and line up :
Barcelona (4-3-3)
Valdes
Dani Alves, Puyol, Pique, Maxwell
Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta
Messi, Ibrahimovic, Henry

Unavailable
C. Puyol,E.Abidal

Stuttgart

Stuttgart should be still regretting to have missed the perfect opportunity of building a handicap before the return leg. The German side had a significant advantage at the Mercedez Benz arena, but had to settle for a draw despite taking the lead through Cacau’s first half strike.

Southern club has improved its’ ranking and overall level of performance after substitution of Babbel for Gross. The team is in the upper part of the table now and is still in contention for the European cup zone.

At the week-end Stuttgart suffered a 1-2 defeat in Gelsenchirchen against Schalke. Defensively their prospects in Spain are not too bright as it’s been more than 2 months since Jens Lehmann goal was kept locked.

Expected formation and line up :
Stuttgart(4-4-2)
Lehmann
Trasch, Tasci, Delpierre,Molinaro,
Gebhart, Kuzmanovic, Khedira, Hleb
Pogrebnyak, Cacau

Unavailable
M. Lanig , A. Boka, S. Ulreich

Betting advice

Let's imagine for a moment, that Messi is human after all and could have a day off tonight. If it wasn't for Messi - Barca would've suffered big time both vs. Valencia and Almeria.

The Statistics :

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Stuttgart (+2) @ 1.71 with Bet365