Wednesday night sees Juventus travel to the Santiago Bernabeu with a slender 2-1 lead as the Champions League enters its final stages. Whilst Carlo Ancelotti will not have been too disappointed to come away from the Juventus Stadium with a narrow deficit, he will have been disappointed by the manner of the defeat.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side came flying out of the traps and deserved to take the lead through Alvaro Morata after the young striker pounced on a rebound after a Carlos Tevez shot was palmed into his path by Iker Casillas. With the Old Lady on fire, it once again fell to Cristiano Ronaldo to dig Real out and he levelled the score with a header from point blank range. As the game wore on, both sides had chances, with James Rodriguez crashing a header against the bar before Juve regained the lead through a Carlos Tevez penalty after Dani Carvajal committed a clumsy challenge in the area.
Whilst no doubt pleased with the win, Juventus may well regret Fernando Llorente’s miss late on in the game with Real only needing a 1-0 win to reach the final for a second year running and set up, barring a miracle for Bayern Munich, an El Clasico final.
Ancelotti certainly missed Luka Modric in the middle of the park and he may well abandon the idea of using Sergio Ramos as a midfielder given the Spanish international’s poor performance. Gareth Bale also had an off day and Real will need to show a lot more attacking intent in the second tie if they are to progress to the final.
Real Madrid v Juventus Betting Tips
- Match to end in a draw – Juve are an incredibly experienced side and with Morata and Tevez up front they have plenty of goals in their side. We can’t see Real scoring many with the Italian outfit likely to play with a back five and you can back a draw at odds of 3/1 with Ladbrokes
- Both teams to score – Allegri’s outfit were certainly more impressive going forwards than many people had expected and with Tevez and Morata up front they certainly have goals in them. However, having Cristiano Ronaldo on your side is like having a one goal head start and you can back BTTS at 10/11 with Betfred.
- Real Madrid to come from behind and draw – We can certainly see Juve taking the lead once again in this tie but with Real being at home they will definitely want to recover and you can back them to salvage a draw at 7/1 with Ladbrokes.
- Draw at half time and draw at full time – If you don’t like the odds of 3/1 on a draw outright, then you can back the game to be level at half time and full time at huge odds of 11/2 with BetVictor.