Barcelona vs Bayer Leverkusen Betting Tips

It has been a far from ideal start to the season for the Catalans although to some extent that is only by the imperious standards they set last year. The defensive problems they displayed in the Spanish and European Super Cups when they conceded 4 goals against Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla are still evident. They conceded 4 again as they sank to a crushing defeat at Celta Vigo in the league last week and a 2-1 win over Las Palmas at the weekend wasn’t completely convincing and was in any case over-shadowed by an injury to Lionel Messi which will see him out for 2 months.

It goes without saying that his absence will be felt as he is the best player in the world and the pressure will be on Luis Suarez, who netted both goals on Saturday and Neymar to step up to the plate.

There is no question that Barca have enough quality to cope without Messi in the majority of games but it only heightens the need to sort out their defensive issues. Barca have scored but also conceded in all of their last 5 fixtures and they’ve only kept 2 clean sheets in 10 matches this season.

They run into a Bayer Leverkusen that has just hit form and might really sense this is as good an opportunity as any to come to the Camp Nou and get a positive result. They won convincingly 3-0 away to Werder Bremen at the weekend and beat BATE 4-1 in their opening Champions League Group Game to top the group.

A play-off win over Lazio also clearly indicates that Bayer are still a very useful side and they could cause Barca one or two problems here. With the Barcelona looking shaky at the back and having been totally exploited by some of the better teams they’ve faced so far, there is no reason the Germans can’t score in this game so consider backing both teams to get on the scoresheet at 5/6.

That happened in both legs of the Last 16 meeting between these sides in 2012, which was the last time they met. However there is likely to be no repeat of the 7-1 hammering Barcelona dished out at the Camp Nou then. Leverkusen are a much more experienced side now in terms of Champions League action and they’ve not lost by more than 1 goal in any of their last 9 European trips.

This should be very competitive too but Barcelona in their first Champions League home game since winning the trophy in Berlin, will be hungry to put in a performance and their quality should ultimately tell. Therefore a 2-1 home win looks like a realistic outcome and can be backed at 7/1.