Punters should pile on Pedro to strike first with Barca likely to bash BATE tonight!
Predictably, Barcelona are priced up at extremely prohibitive odds – 1.30 is the best offer in town with 888sport.com and Ladbrokes – for their encounter with BATE Borisov at the Camp Nou tonight, despite the distinct possibility of Pep Guardiola fielding an under-strength side.
Indeed, the Blaugrana have already sailed through to the knockout stages, unsurprisingly, and the Catalan giants have much bigger fish to fry with arch enemies Real Madrid to do battle with this weekend. So, could we be in for a shock result? Unlikely.
While Guardiola is poised to send out a starting XI with a number of names that will be unfamiliar to most with the obvious exception of die-heard Barca fans, the strength of the reigning Spanish and European champions will be simply too much for the Belarusian outfit to handle.
These two sides have only met once before, and that game ended 5-0 to Barcelona, and Guardiola are unbeaten in 12 matches in this competition at home since that shock reverse at the hands of Rubin Kazan back in 2009. Those factors, allied with the fact that BATE have been beaten in each of their five previous encounters with Spanish opposition – not to mention that they’ve never won a match away from home in the Champions League – suggest that an upset is far from on the cards.
One of the aspects of this fixture that I will be focusing on will be the return of Pedro, who has been sidelined through injury in recent weeks. To my mind, he’s something of an unsung hero in Catalonia, and at a standout 5.30 with ALLYoubet I reckon he’s well worth backing in the first goalscorer market, as I very much doubt he will be found wanting for sharpness, while he’ll undoubtedly be keen to impress Guardiola with El Clasico looming large.