Real Madrid and Celtic meet at Santiago Bernabeu this Wednesday. This is an event without a competitive meaning because Real secured the position in the next round, and on the other end, Celtic will end last in this assembly. The Hoops had their chances to stay in the race for the Europa League, but their misses against Shakhtar had a high price. Meanwhile, Real didn’t win for two games in a row, slipping this weekend at home to Girona. That’s something we haven’t seen in a while.
Preview
Real Madrid (-500) couldn’t beat Girona again at Bernabeu, playing 1-1. A few years ago, the Los Blancos lost to the same rivals, and many hoped to see them avenging that defeat.
After losing in Leipzig to RB, 3-2, in the UCL, Ancelotti’s crew wasn’t on the winning side for the second game in a row. Though, to be honest, so far this year, Real was incredible, and one loss (in a meaningless game) and one draw at home in La Liga simply won’t change our opinion on this unit.
In five of the past six games Real played, we had both them and the rivals netting, and four events throughout the same stretch were with over 2.5 goals. The contest against Girona was only the second one since the beginning of the campaign in which Los Blancos weren’t able to score two or more hits.
Celtic (+1100) is in Madrid defending its honor and reputation. The Hoops are disappointed with how things ended, but players have the motive to come out and play one good game against the biggest team in the world.
The Scottish champs haven’t lost in the past five games, winning four and playing one draw, which was against Shakhtar at home, 1-1. That result eliminated them from Europe, and we have to say, the Hoops didn’t deserve to end their international adventure here, but that’s football.
Four of those five events in which Celtic didn’t lose concluded with three or more goals, and the only one that didn’t was against the Ukrainians, even though both teams had plenty of chances.
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Benzema won’t play, that is for sure, and we think that Ancelotti might rest a few starters.
The Hoops don’t have any new names on the injury list, but there could be some mixing in the lineup as well.
Head to Head Games
The first meeting ended with Real’s 0-3 win at Celtic Park, even though the hosts had at least two dead chances to score in the opening 45 minutes. Los Blancos broke their resistance in the second sequence, and simply, Celtic couldn’t recover. Many analysts agree that the final score was slightly higher than it should have been.
Prediction
Real is better than Celtic, and even if Ancelotti sends the reservists, there won’t be any trouble for Los Blancos, especially now following an unexpected draw against Girona. The odds on that are low, but Real has the power to beat Celtic and cover a 1.5-goal spread. In that case, the odds are significantly higher, sitting at -110.a
Pick: Real -1.5 -110
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Nikola Velickovic is a sports journalist who loves to write and read on all sports. Nikola contributes both news updates and functions as a sports breaking news writer at WagerBop.
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Email: nikola@wagerbop.com
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