Just four teams remain as the football Champions League Semi-Finals take centre stage this week in Lisbon. Michael Owen is back once again with his preview for both games.
Over 3.5 Goals
RB Leipzig v PSG
Both teams scored late winners to progress to the semi-final and, given that neither team has been beyond this stage, the UEFA Champions League will have at least one new face in the final.
Leipzig are aiming to become the seventh German Club to reach the UEFA Champions League final and confidence will be high after the way they responded to Atletico Madrid’s equaliser in their quarter final on Thursday evening.
Since football restarted in Germany, Leipzig have lost only once in ten games and even though they lost their top scorer Timo Werner to Chelsea, they continue to find a way to win.
This is PSG’s second Champions League semi-final and their first since 1995. They were very fortunate to scrape through against Atalanta in their quarter-final match and certainly don’t look like a team that can go on and win the tournament.
However, the return of Kylian Mbappe from injury will have been a real boost to the French Champions. It was his introduction on the hour mark in their quarter final that seemed to change everything for PSG and they will feel this is their best chance ever of winning the competition.
In my opinion, the new format this season of matches being played as one-off ties has helped some of the less fancied teams to progress. The games seem to be played with much more urgency and everyone knows that one slip-up or moment of brilliance can be the difference between success and failure.
I see this game as being very open and maybe even a little gung-ho and I’m going for an entertaining game to watch ending in a 3-2 win for RB Leipzig.
Bayern to win and both teams to score
Lyon v Bayern Munich
Lyon shattered the hopes of my pre-tournament fancies Manchester City, when they comprehensively beat them 3-1 on Saturday evening. As disappointing as Manchester City were, Lyon certainly did the business and that result, on the back of eliminating Juventus in the previous round, means that Rudi Garcia and his men march on to the semi-finals with confidence sky-high.
Bayern had an incredible win against Barcelona on Friday night to book their place in the Champions League Semi-Finals when they walloped them 8-2 in what will go down as one of the most embarrassing nights in Barcelona’s history.
Robert Lewandowski scored just once in Bayern’s win but that moved him onto 14 goals in this season’s Champions League competition which is two more than Messi, Ronaldo and Mbappe combined. Combined! Their other seven goals on the night, came from four different scorers and that will give the Lyon boss a headache or two in the build-up to this match.
Bayern’s 9th consecutive Champions League win means they have now won every game they’ve played in this season’s competition and their favourites tag for winning the competition is fully justified.
As much as Lyon undoubtedly deserve their place in the last four, I think this may well be the end of the road for Les Gones and I’m going for a comfortable 3-1 win to the unstoppable Bayern Munich.
