Football Betting Preview: Liverpool vs Inter Milan in Champions League
Inter Milan faces the tough task of coming back from two goals down when they host Liverpool in the second leg of a Soccer Betting Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday.
Liverpool won the first leg 2-0 last week as Dirk Kuyt and captain Steven Gerrard scored. Inter had to play with only 10 men for much of the match when Marco Materazzi was sent off. They will have to play without Materazzi on Tuesday in addition to injured Ivan Cordoba and Walter Samuel. Inter may be getting defender Christian Chivu back on Tuesday though. “I still have pain, but the threshold than I can take has moved considerably higher,” Chivu said. “I will put myself at the disposition of the coach.”
Inter is a half goal favorite with a total of 2.5 under -140 at SBG Global.
The three-way line has Inter -115, Liverpool +270 and the draw at +200.
Liverpool is trying to make it four English teams in the quarterfinals as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are already in. The other four teams are FC Barcelona, AS Roma, Schlake and Fenerbahce. “Inter Milan are a top side and we know what a difficult task it is going to be to get through,” Gerrard said. “We’ll probably need to turn in our best performance of the season to do it. We’ll need a really big display with every player fighting for every ball and showing everyone how desperate we are to go into the last eight.” Even though Liverpool has a 2-0 lead they may not play a defensive style on Tuesday according to Gerrard. “We can’t go there thinking we’ve got a 2-0 lead,” Gerrard said. “We’re going there with a mind-set of it being 0-0 and us needing to produce another majestic European performance to get through.”
Inter coach Roberto Mancini should have strikers Julio Cruz and Hernan Crespo back from injuries and available for the match. “Tuesday we’ll need one of those evenings where everything goes right,” Mancini said. “If we don’t manage to pass the round it wouldn’t be a failure. In soccer there are also defeats and what’s important is to always try to win and that’s what we do.”
Liverpool is expected to get Javier Mascherano back on Tuesday. He was hurt last week in League action and missed Saturday’s game but should play on Tuesday. They will be without full-back Steve Finnan, who has a hamstring injury.