Champions league Tuesday night

Roma V Manchester United

This is a hard one to call with Totti out. On one hand people will tell you that he goes missing in the big games and that he wont be missed, however I think he’s been pivotal in their good form of late and think he will be missed. This is the fifth time these two have met inside the last 12 months so they should be somewhat accustomed to each other at this stage.
Roma’s league run has had much success owing to their home record where they have 12 wins from 15 attempts. They now have 11 consecutive wins at the Stadio Olimpico scoring 23 and keeping 7 clean sheets in the process. They progressed to this round after beating Real Madrid home and away 2 – 1 on both occasions with Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Aquilani both impressing.
Francesco Totti is out with a thigh strain but De Rossi and Vucinic, who will take Totti’s place return from their suspensions, while Perrotta is suspended.
Manchester United have been in tremendous form in the last few months and it would take a brave man to bet against them winning the League title again. They cruised past Aston Villa 4 – 0 on Sunday and in truth it could have been 10 – 0 as they created so many chances. They seem to have everything in their favour for this one as they have all their big guns available and Ronaldo, Rooney are in excellent form. Despite an early season blip United have been just as dominant away from home and have 6 wins from the last 8 outings. Theres a real belief that this is the year that they can recapture the Champions league title and it will take a big effort to knock them out.

Verdict
I feel that Man Utd will be happy here with a draw as they should definitely be too strong on their own patch in the second leg. Roma are good in front of home fans but without Totti its very hard to see them break down a tough United defence. United would be happy to take a draw here and finish the job back in Old Trafford and this is how I see this one panning out. 1 – 1 would be a good result for Manchester as they would have an away goal. Personally il be having small stakes on the 0 – 0 and 1 – 1 scorelines and the draw as my selection.
Good luck

PICK
Roma/Manchester United – draw ( 3.1 @ paddy power) 3 points



Shalke 04 V Barcelona

It seems that when the draw was made for this round that everyone wanted to get Shalke. As time has progressed though now is the best time to play Barca as domestically they have been having trouble, especially away from home. With just 4 wins away from Camp Nou all season and just 1 win in the last 6 they have slipped back to third and have been overtaken by Villareal. They were 2 – 0 up at Betis on Saturday before eventually going down 3 – 2 and the fickle fans are getting restless.
Ronaldinho, Deco and Lionel Messi are all still out and Etoo faces a late fitness test.
So what they don’t need right now is an away tie to a somewhat unknown force. With three wins and a draw in their last four matches Shalke will go into this one fully confident of causing an upset. They have very little to lose and as ive mentioned this is the best time to be getting Barcelona to visit. They have scored in all but two home games this year and with Kuranyi and Altintop ready to go, it could make for an interesting night.
Jermaine Jones is suspended and Albert Streit and Ivan Rakitić are both out with injuries so a bit of re-jigging is needed to the midfield.

Verdict
Why not a home win? The home side will come out to win this one and I would never consider backing Barcelona without Messi, Deco or Ronaldinho. The atmosphere should be very intimidating and this could be one of those great European nights. I think the match has been priced up on reputation rather than recent form and ability and im siding with Shalke here.

PICK
Shalke win (3.75 @ expekt) 3 points