UEFA Europa League: Galatasaray vs. Barcelona Preview, Odds, Prediction

Galatasaray meets with Barcelona on Thursday evening in the UEFA Europa League round of 16. The two sides played the first leg without goals, which disappointed the fans all across the world. Barca had a few chances, but on the other side, Galata tried to hit back on several occassions, and was near to hitting Ter Stegen’s net. Despite the game taking place in Istanbul, the Spanish powerhouse is a massive favorite in front of 50,000 Galata fans, who know to make a ferocious atmosphere.

Preview

Galatasaray (+800) fought a massive win this Monday against Besiktas in the derby of the Turkish Super Lig. The final result was 2-1, with the hosts leading 2-0 at halftime and slowing down in the second 45 minutes. That match was open and offensive-minded, with both teams having several chances for scoring.

With this triumph, Galata recovered after back-to-back events in which they haven’t won. At first, they lost in Konya, 2-0, and then played with Barca 0-0 in Spain. Overall this team plays interesting and efficient events, and only two of the past ten didn’t end with both sides scoring.

Six of them during the same stretch were with over 2.5 goals. The same is when playing at home, where the latest six matches saw both sides netting, with five of them ending with three or more hits.

Barcelona (-330) is without a defeat for the last 10 games, and we can say that Xavi made things much better since the start of this calendar year. During this stretch, we saw Blaugrana winning seven times and with three draws.

Barca’s defense has been up to the task conceding once in the latest four meetings, while on the other side, the offense delivered 10 times. Regarding the attackers, we have to give them credit, as they managed to score four goals in four of the latest six contests.

There are still certain glitches in Barcelona’s performances, but not as frequently as before. Torres, Aubameyang, Traore and the rest of the forwards are still getting to know each other.

Latest News

Arda Turan, the former Barcelona player, won’t meet his old team due to a groin injury.

On the other side, several players won’t be eligible for Blaugrana, but all of them have been our for quite some time – Dani Alves, Balde, Fati, Roberto, Umtiti.

Head to Head Games

As said, the previous game saw no goals, even though there were solid chances on both ends of the pitch.

Overall, these two sides met eight times, with Barca winning on five occasions, two games ended with a draw and Galata won once, at home back in 1995.

Prediction

Like in the matchup with Napoli, Barcelona will have more space, and it will be much easier to develop their usual game. All of their pacey attackers will have more room to use speed, therefore we expect to see the Spaniards winning, just like they did in Naples. Our pick would be Barca to win and cover a -1.5 goal margin, with the odds on that at the moment set at -105, which is a great bargain.

Pick: Barcelona -1.5