Football Bet of the Day: Former Leeds man backed for UCL goal

Obviously the focus for our Football Bet of the Day comes from the Uefa Champions League as we have four last 16 ties to look ahead to. You can find full match previews for all of the games here on Betfred Insights, but for our Football Bet of the Day, we are turning our attention to Portugal, where Benfica host Barcelona in what could be another thrilling encounter. 

Check out my Football Bet of the Day down below. 

Football Odds

Fans of the Champions League will be well aware of the fact that these two have already met in Lisbon in this season’s competition. That game could act as a blueprint for this first leg knockout tie, as Barca came away 5-4 winners after a truly enthralling encounter. 

That previous meeting and the goalscoring ability of both teams has skewed the market somewhat, with only 1/1 available for over 3.5 goals in this game. I am not quite so sure that we will see a similar scoreline given this is a first leg fixture, and with a whole 90 minutes to come in Barcelona, I fear people may be slightly too eager to back goals galore once again. 

However, from my point of view I think Barcelona are the dark horses to win this competition and they will surely fancy their chances of progressing past Benfica. In the play-off round, the Lisbon outfit edged past Monaco, winning 4-3 on aggregate after a 3-3 draw at home in the second leg. 

The stats point to the fact that there will be plenty of goals in this one but I will err on the side of caution and simply back a Barcelona goalscorer, given I feel they are favourites to progress and should have the majority of the play at the Estadio da Luz. Raphinha has enjoyed the finest goalscoring season of his career up to this point and the Champions League looks to be his competition this term. 

Benfica vs Barcelona Odds

In La Liga the former Leeds man has bagged 13 goals in 26 games, but in the UCL he is now the third top scorer having bagged eight goals in eight games in Europe. That goal record contains a hat-trick against Bayern Munich, a goal at Borussia Dortmund and a brace in that 4-3 win over Benfica. 

The Benfica back line will be more than aware of his talents and although Robert Lewandowski is Barca’s top scorer, I think we are getting better value backing Raphinha to find the net on this occasion. His shot data is also good and he isn’t shy in getting efforts off at goals. He’s had 25 shots in the Champions League this term, with 11 on-target efforts resulting in eight goals. 

That’s a brilliant show of efficiency in recent matches and I think he will fancy his chances up against a defence that he has already torn apart once. I don’t think this game will have eight or nine goals in, like some others are predicting, but I do think both teams will score. In terms of Barca, I think Raphinha is the way to go for value at 7/5. 

Offers

Double Delight & Hat-trick Heaven: Get double or treble the odds if your winning First Goalscorer bet scores a 2nd and 3rd

Acca Flex: Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 100% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down

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