Wednesday night’s best bets at Villa Park include plenty of goals and cards, with Villa’s in-form forward finding the net.
Aston Villa and Bayern Munich will look to build on their opening League stage wins when they rekindle memories of the 1982 final in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Best bets
Over 3.5 total goals
11/10
Over 5.5 total cards
5/6
Jhon Duran to score anytime
15/8
In-form finishers should ensure four or more goals
Villa go into this game as the underdogs because their form is inferior to Bayern’s and they have much less Champions League experience.
But the presence of Unai Emery on the bench could be a big leveller, as the Spaniard helped Villarreal knock the German giants out of this competition three seasons ago.
Emery must realise that his team have to put their opponents under pressure at the back and that means pressing from the front and playing the ball behind their backline with quality.
The Bavarians have won six of their first seven games under Vincent Kompany, who was a surprise appointment in the summer.
But it’s hard to argue against the Belgian’s work so far as his team have blitzed their opponents by an aggregate score of 30-4 – making it the best start by a Bayern coach in the Bundesliga era.
Both teams are full of deadly finishers – Harry Kane has scored 54 goals in 52 appearances for the Bundesliga club – while Villa have several forwards who know their way to goal.
Ollie Watkins scored 19 Premier League goals last term, while Jhon Duran is averaging a goal every 56 minutes so far this term.
Over 3.5 goals have been scored in all but two of Bayern’s seven games this season, while three of Villa’s last five have also featured four or more strikes.
Bookings could mount up under Romanian ref
The appointment of 41-year-old Romanian referee Radu Petrescu for this contest has raised a few eyebrows given his relative lack of Champions League experience.
This will be the official’s fourth-ever game in the competition and it is by far the highest-profile match of his assignments.
Petrescu averages four yellow cards per game across those previous matches, and roughly similar in other UEFA competitions, but he issued six cautions in his last Romanian top-flight clash.
Duran can be a big hit off the bench
Duran’s statistics are incredible this season, with the Villa striker currently averaging over 2.2 goals per 90 minutes in the Premier League.
That currently makes him more prolific than either Erling Haaland or Cole Palmer on a goals-per-minute basis.
The Colombian may not start Wednesday’s game, but he will be the first forward to emerge from the bench if Villa need a goal in the final 25 minutes.
He scored within minutes of coming on in Bern on matchday one only to see his goal ruled out for a handball back in Villa’s own half.
And the former MLS striker’s ability to sniff out opportunities in Bayern’s box could prove crucial to his side’s chances of taking something from the contest.
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