Champions League Betting: Barcelona v Dynamo Kiev

Champions League / Tobias Gourlay / 28 September 2009 / Leave a Comment

The Choirboy is ready to sing again.

Best Bet: Back Barcelona -2.25 at [1.84] on the Asian Handicap

Tobias Gourlay fancies Barcelona to do a job on Dynamo Kiev. And how.

In Group F the reigning European champions are [1.13] to win at home to the reigning Ukrainian champions. Barcelona will be confident they can beat Dynamo Kiev, then, but the last time Dynamo were in Catalonia they only went and won 4-0. That was a while ago, though; so long ago, in fact, that Andriy Shevchenko was still a good player. Sheva scored a first-half hat-trick that night, but probably won't be repeating the performance this time around.

More bad news for Barça: they lost 3-2 to Ukrainian opposition (Shakhtar Donetsk) in last season's group stage. But Pep Guardiola's team had already qualified at the time of that game, and the young manager will not allow such complacency on Tuesday evening. His side were held to a goalless draw in Milan by José Mourinho's Inter a fortnight ago, and are aware of the importance of beating a team that won their opening game at home to Rubin Kazan.

It is not clear whether Thierry Henry is available to start against Dynamo because he was substituted in the first-half of Barça's weekend victory over Málaga, but Andrés Iniesta might just be ready to start for the first time since last season's Champions League final and would be a fine replacement for his French team-mate.

During last season's successful campaign Guardiola's team kept clean sheets against their knockout-stage opponents, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, but conceded to all of Basel, Shakhtar and Sporting Lisbon in the group stage. They qualified easily because they also score 18 times in their six matches. Over 2.5 Goals is a disappointingly short [1.37] this time. Over 3.5 Goals, which paid out in 4/6 at the Camp Nou in 2008/09, is on offer at [1.91].

If you fancy Over 3.5 Goals, there are a couple of odds-against alternatives that might have more appeal. If you think there will be lots of goals because Shevchenko, Artem Milevskiy and their colleagues have a good chance of finding a way past Víctor Valdés, you can say No to the Barcelona Clean Sheet at [2.12]. If you think there will be lots of goals because Barça are going to administer a thrashing, then Barcelona -2.5 on the Asian Handicap is [2.07].

Because Dynamo have scored in only one of their nine away defeats since 2004 in the Champions League, and the final score in that one was 5-1, this column prefers Barça on the Asian Handicap, but will probably be a touch more conservative and take them -2.25 at [1.84].