Thursday’s Champions League Betting Guide: Newcastle v Barcelona & De Bruyne’s Return to the Etihad
Newcastle United are back in the big time and what a way to mark their return to the Champions League with Spanish Champions Barcelona set to visit a raucous St James’ Park. Meanwhile, Manchester City great Kevin De Bruyne is sure to receive a hero’s welcome as he returns to the Etihad with Italian Champions Napoli.
Bar One Racing brings you a breakdown of some key stats, facts, and trends to consider ahead of Thursday’s headline matches with Bet Builders, Match Specials, and Price Boosts available for every Champions League game this season via the new-look Bar One Racing website.
Newcastle United v Barcelona, Thur, 20:00
Newcastle are searching for a new hero following Alexander Isak’s desertion and they may have found a new striker to worship in Nick Woltemade. The 23-year-old German scored the only goal in Saturday’s win at home to Wolves as the Toon finally picked up their first three points of the new campaign.
Nick Woltemade to score first for the second game running has been boosted online to 5/1 (from 9/2).
Barcelona, meanwhile, have begun the defence of their LA LIGA title in strong fashion with three wins and a draw to date. Catalan confidence was further boosted at the weekend thanks to a 6-0 thumping of Valencia with substitute Raphina and Lewandowski both bagging braces.
New boy Marcus Rashford assisted one of those Raphina goals and has been directly involved in eight goals in 11 career starts against Newcastle (G5, A3), including four in six starts at St. James’ Park (G2, A2).
Marcus Rashford to score first is 7/1 while the Englishman is 9/4 to score anytime.
Facing all of that firepower will be a daunting task for Newcastle but they’ve proven they can down the biggest of guns having hammered PSG here just a couple of years ago. However, that is the Geordies only home win from their last eight games in this competition.
Incredibly, this is Barcelona’s 30th successive season at Europe’s top table. On their 29 previous appearances in this competition, Barca have only been beaten on matchday one on three occasions (W20, D6).
The four previous competitive H2Hs have been dominated by Barcelona (W3, L1), who have won each of the last three meetings. The Catalan giants have also won 12 of their last 16 UCL games against English opposition (D2, L2).
Barcelona’s eight UCL league phase games last season averaged over five goals per match. With that in mind, one of the featured bets on BarOneRacing.com for Thursday’s game is Barcelona to win, Over 3.5 Goals, and Raphina to score anytime at combined odds of 13/2.
Man City v Napoli, Thur, 20:00
Kevin De Bruyne makes a quick return to Manchester and while he is certain to receive a hero’s welcome, the Manchester City defence will have to ensure they aren’t too welcoming of their old team mate with the Belgian midfielder in prime form with six goal contributions in five games for club and country (G5, A1).
De Bruyne is 11/1 to score first and 9/2 to score anytime against his former side.
The Belgian won’t be the only player on the pitch making a Manchester return with United old boys Scott McTominay and Rasmus Hojlund now on the same side as De Bruyne. Hojlund and De Bruyne scored in Napoli’s impressive 1-3 away win against Fiorentina on Saturday as the Italian Champions extended their Serie A record for the season to three wins from three played.
Scott McTominay has earned cult hero status in Naples after helping Napoli to the title last season and the Scottish midfielder is boosted online to score anytime at 9/2 (from 4/1).
Having won the Manchester derby at a canter on Sunday, City will start this game as favourites and hold a narrow advantage across four previous meetings (W2, D1, L1), all of them coming in UCL group-stage affairs. Worryingly, Napoli have never won a European away game in England (D3, L9).
In six of Manchester City’s last seven UCL fixtures, both teams were on the scoresheet (W1, D1, L5). BTTS on Thursday is 7/10.
In team news, Manchester City have no new injury concerns but Rayan Cherki and Omar Marmoush are among those absent. Lukaku missed Napoli’s last game and is doubtful again.
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