Big Game Focus: Barcelona v Tottenham

The Champions League will return this week and the Big Game Focus takes a look at one of the huge matches of Tuesday as Barcelona is set to play host to Tottenham.

Tottenham have a herculean task of beating Barcelona away at Camp Nou when they face off on Tuesday. The Premier League side need three points to stand any realistic chance of qualifying for the knock out stage of the competition. They need to match Inter Milan’s result, who are playing host to PSV.

Barcelona have already qualified for the knockout stage as group winners, thanks in part to their 4-2 win against Spurs at Wembley. The Catalans are on a four-game winning run and they won’t want to lose in a clash with Spurs.

The big question here is can Spurs do what many have failed to do at the Nou Camp in the Champions League?

Betting preview

Barcelona have lost just one of their last 12 Champions League meetings with English clubs, with that defeat coming in November 2016 at Manchester City. They are in a good moment and Lionel Messi is fit and firing making odds of 2.00 for a Home Win look good here.

Encounters between Barcelona and Tottenham have ended with both teams finding the back of the net. The two sides are in good goalscoring form and for that reason, you can back Both Teams to Score at odds of 1.40 here.

Barcelona star Messi has been involved in 28 goals; 22 goals and six assists; in 29 Champions League appearances against English clubs. He was on target against Espanyol during the weekend and he makes an excellent punt for our Anytime Goalscorer market at odds of 1.85.

Team news

Barcelona are set to miss the services of Samuel Umtiti and Rafinha who are both ruled out for this one and are set to miss the majority of the season for the Catalans.

The visitors, on the other hand, will be without Moussa Dembele and Davinson Sanchez, whilst Erik Lamela, Juan Foyth and Kieran Trippier are all doubts for this game.

Possible line ups

Barcelona: Cillessen, Semedo, Lenglet, Varmaelen, Alba, Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur, Dembele, Suarez, Messi.

Tottenham: Lloris, Alderweireld, Dier, Vertonghen, Walker-Peters, Eriksen, Winks, Rose, Alli, Moura, Kane.