Champion League: 3 reasons why Basel can beat Real Madrid
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Having smashed Basel 5-1 earlier in the competition Real Madrid are expected to secure a routine victory over the Swiss outfit in the Champions League this week.
Los Blancos have been chalked up as the 2/5 favourites for the win, while the hosts can be backed at 4/1 to earn a share of the points or at 6/1 to record a memorable win.
Read on to see why the longer price might just represent the best value.
Basel’s home form
As you’d expect from a side at the top of their domestic leagueelel are used to getting things their own way at home.
A record of just three losses from their last 27 games at St Jakob Park shows that Real have a task on their hands and the fact that record has been taken into European competitions, where the hosts have lost just one of their last seven at home, will give Paulo Sousa’s men even more confidence.
Shkelzen Gashi’s goal threat
In Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale Madrid have the two most expensive forwards in world football. Add in the likes of Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez and the Spanish giants boast arguably the best frontline available.
However, Basel have a strike star of their own in Albanian hitman Gashi. The 26-year-old has smashed 10 goals in his 15 games so far and comes into this game in a rich vein of form.
The former Grasshoppers star has hit six goals in his last six games including a brace last time out and could punish the visitors if they fail to bring their ‘A-game’.
Madrid are already through
Ronaldo, Bale and Rodriguez have all been put through their paces in training ahead of the match but whether or not they play – or how motivated they will be if they do – remains to be seen.
Madrid have already qualified for the next round of the competition so it remains to be seen if Carlo Ancelotti will tinker with his side for this fixture.
Madrid are just two points clear at the top of La Liga and with wrestling the crown back from city neighbours Atletico high on the list of priorities this year some of the bigger-named players could well be given the night off!
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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