Barcelona v Atlético Madrid Betting Tips: Camp Nou to be treated to goals

Feb 06 2017
Feb 06 2017
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Having lost by two goals to one in the first leg just last week, Atlético Madrid travel to Camp Nou on Tuesday night as they attempt to overturn the deficit and advance to the Copa del Rey final.

Despite leading by a margin of just one, considering they’ve got two away-goals in the bag, Barcelona are in a fantastic position at the half-way point in this tie. The Catalan side know that they can threaten anyone on their own patch and, with that first-leg lead, already have one foot firmly in the final.

From a betting point of view, with the way the first leg has it set up, this fixture just screams goals for the hosts. At odds of 2/1 and 7/4 respectively, ‘Barcelona to Score Over 2.5 Goals’ and ‘Barcelona to Score Over 1.5 Second Half Goals’ are the two selections to be on.

Not only have Barcelona re-found their goal-scoring touch of late (24 goals in their last eight matches), but, having secured the lead at Estadio Vicente Calderón, they could be afforded the opportunity to play on the counter – something that the current crop at Barca seem to relish.

The problem that Simeone and his men face here is the fact that they need at least two goals to stand a chance of going through. With this in mind, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to adopt their preferred style of sitting back and defending first. This means that, sooner or later, Atléti must come out and attack. In doing so, they could indeed cause a few problems for a Barcelona rearguard that hasn’t always been the toughest to breach this season, but they risk being caught on the counter, and it is on the counter where Barcelona can put this one to bed.

Whichever way you look at this match, whether you think Atléti will try to sit in and make it hard for Barcelona to start with, at some point the visitors need to chase goals whether they like it or not and this is where they can be caught out.

Having scored an average of three per game (scoring at least three in five of their last eight) Luis Enrique’s side are fancied to exploit their first-leg lead and find the net with regularity on Tuesday night. However, if Atlético do favour a defensive approach early on, then it’s likely that the second half could prove to be the more fruitful in terms of goal-mouth action for the hosts. After all, 16 of the last 23 goals that Barca have scored on home soil have come after the break. On top of this, 75% of the goals that Atléti have conceded on the road after the winter break have also been scored during the second 45.

All in all, this one is set up perfectly for the hosts to enjoy plenty of attacking success, although it’s certainly worth betting that they do most of their best work after the break.

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