Champions League Preview - Tuesday

Champions League action moves into matchday six this week with eight high quality games being played on Tuesday night and eight more on Wednesday night.

Chelsea host Levski Sofia at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night (kick-off 7:45pm) already safe in the knowledge that their qualifying place in the next stage has already been booked for two weeks, however following their recent defeat by Werder Bremen The Blues will be looking to achieve their initial goal of winning the group. Sofia have already been eliminated after a poor showing in this season's Champions League but they still have their pride to play for and they will be looking to avoid a crushing defeat away to one of the overall tournament favourites. Chelsea can still be backed for Champions League glory at 4/1 with extrabet narrowly ahead of Barcelona in the betting who are the second favorites with Coral and Bet365 at 11/2.

Didier Drogba has been the force behind a lot of Chelsea's victories this season and on matchday 2 away to Sofia it was no exception. He managed a hat-trick in less than half an hour to make easy work of the Bulgarian champions. Drogba will be keen to build on his recent good form and show the opposition that it wasn't a fluke earlier on in the season at the Vasil Levski National Stadium. The big Ivorian is short priced to open the scoring on Tuesday night and quite rightly so given his form so far this season; you can back him at 3/1 with bet365 to score the first goal or at 8/11 with the same firm to score at any time in the game. Drogba's strike partner Andrei Shevchenko is also priced at 3/1 for the first goal with bet365. The Ukrainian has been out of sorts since his arrival in the summer but class is permanent so he always has to be considered when perusing the first scorer markets.

Jose Mourinho's side are massive favourites for this tie with most firms including Ladbrokes and VC Bet only offering 1/10 on a home victory. Levski Sofia are a best available 28/1 with bet365, which is an absolutely huge price in a two horse race, whilst the draw is priced generously at 8/1 with expect.com.

Liverpool head to Turkey for a match with Galatasaray, which really only has pride at stake. The Reds are guaranteed top spot in the group and their hosts are assured of the rock bottom position so this may be an opportunity for Rafa Benitez to try out some other options within his squad and rest some key players, however knowing the Spaniard's style he would have made changes anyway; Benitez went almost 100 games without keeping the same starting eleven recently so expect changes from the team that demolished Wigan 4-0 at the JJB Stadium at the weekend.

Liverpool's domestic form hasn't been very good at all this season and that 4-0 victory was their first away win of the season. However, their European form has been fantastic; since drawing 0-0 with PSV on Matchday 1, Liverpool have recorded four successive wins to top the group three points ahead of PSV and even if they lose to Galatasaray and PSV win at FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Liverpool's superior-to-head record ensures they cannot be overtaken.

It will be an emotional and nostalgic return for the Merseysiders as this is the ground where they made that unbelievable come back from 3-0 down at half time against AC Milan to win the Champions League trophy in 2005.

Despite being the group leaders and being in good European form The Reds are priced as the underdogs in this one at a best available 2/1 with Bet365, whilst Galatasaray are the narrow favourites with expect.com priced at 7/5. The draw looks likely in this one, which is best priced at 23/10 with sporting odds.

Below is a full list of Tuesday night's Champions League fixtures, listed along with the kick off times and best available prices for each game in brackets.

Barcelona (2/5) v Werder Bremen (15/2) Draw (4/1) 19:45
Bayern Munich (11/8) v Inter Milan (11/5) Draw (11/5) 19:45
Chelsea (1/10) v Levski Sofia (28/1) Draw (8/1) 19:45
Galatasaray (7/5) v Liverpool (2/1) Draw (23/10) 19:45
Olympiacos (21/10) v Shakhtar Donetsk (27/10) Draw (12/5) 19:45
PSV (8/11) v Bordeaux (74/17) Draw (5/2) 19:45
Roma (8/13) v Valencia (7/1) Draw (5/2) 19:45
Sporting (4/6) v Spartak Moscow (6/1) Draw (45/17) 19:45

Good luck with your selections!

Ed note: Make all your Champions League bets at Ladbrokes

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