It’s a well known fact, it’s hard for European team to play in Russian weather, but will it stop Tottenham from getting their first win in Champions League?
CSKA Moscow are hoping to perform better than they did in the 1st round of Champions League. Their first opponent was Bayern Leverkusen at the BayArena in Leverkusen. The match started with a bang, when Leverkusen got an early goal in 9′ and another one in 15′. It seemed as it will be strongly one-sided match, but Russians fought back and got their goal in 36′ after a superb performance from Dzagoev and surprisingly another one just 2 minutes after. The match then went on to end at a draw (2:2). The dramatic come back from CSKA shows us they simply don’t give up, which is a great property for a team to have.
In the domestic league, CSKA sits at 2nd place, only 1 point behind the leading Spartak Moscow. With no defeats so far in the league (5W-3D-0L) they are a strong candidate to win it. But their domestic league dominance surely can’t be any kind of indicator of how they will perform in Champions League.
The visiting side, Tottenham are racking up points in Premier League, with 4 wins, 2 draws and zero losses so far. The team seems prepared and well organised. Despite that, Tottenham still lost the opening match of the Champions League at Monaco (2:1) and are now hoping to get the bad taste from their mouth with a good performance in Russia.
VERDICT
These two teams have not yet played each other in Champions League. As mentioned before, visiting Russian teams always has been and always will be a struggle. That can be seen if we take a look at matches played at this venue in previous years. Looking at previous 7 matches, CSKA lost only 1, whereas they managed to stop some of the best teams in the world (Roma, Manchester United, Manchester City..). Tottenham is a strong team and they can surely hit the net of Akinfeev, on the other hand, CSKA will give their best to let visitors leave the cold Russia empty-handed.
Prediction: CSKA Moscow +0.25
Odds: 1.81 SBOBET
Prediction: BTTS (Both teams to score)
Odds: 1.80 bet365
This is one of our free previews, if you would like to take a more professional way of betting, then check out our premium subscription.
