FC Barcelona and Juventus both advanced into the group stage of the Soccer Betting Champions League based on their first leg wins last week. Barcelona routed Wisla Krakow 4-0 last week while Juventus won 4-0 against Artmedia. Tuesday’s second leg results were virtually meaningless as Barcelona lost 1-0 and Juventus played Artmedia to a 1-1 draw. Juventus and FC Barcelona both easily advanced on aggregate.

Greek side Panathinaikos advanced as well into the group stage of the Champions league with a 1-0 win over Sparta Prague. Panathinaikos had won 2-1 in the first leg last week.

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Juventus has not been to the group stage for two years because they were relegated to the second division because of the match-fixing scandal. They had no trouble in this qualifying matchup with Artmedia. Barcelona advanced even though they suffered a meaningless loss that gave new coach Pep Guardiola his first defeat. “I don’t think today we have taken a step backwards in our preparations,” Guardiola said. “Perhaps we weren’t so precise but we had an opponent which was also playing and we had five or six chances with only the goalkeeper to beat. We lost but we could have drawn or even won.” Since Barcelona really had things clinched with the 4-0 win in the first leg they rested Olympic champion Lionel Messi, who recently returned from Beijing after playing for Argentina.

Read more on Soccer Betting Preview: FC Barcelona and Juventus Advance in Champions League

Jose Mourinho was named manager at Inter Milan on Monday, replacing Roberto Mancini who was fired last week.

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Jose Mourinho has been without a job since leaving Chelsea last September. Inter Milan released a statement about the hiring saying, “Thanking Roberto Mancini and his staff for the successes obtained in four seasons in charge of the team,” Inter said, “All of FC Internazionale welcomes Jose Mourinho and his coaches and wishes them the best of luck in their new jobs.”

“He can win the Soccer Betting Champions League with this team and I would like to be a part of it,” said winger Luis Figo. Mancini was fired last week even though Inter won their third straight league title.

Read more on Inter Milan Soccer News: Inter Milan Hires Jose Mourinho

Champions League quarterfinal action begins on Tuesday with the first legs as AS Roma hosts Manchester United while Schalke is home to Barcelona. Roma will be facing a tough test, especially without Francesco Totti. Barcelona is not in the best of shape in their match as they will be without Lionel Messi and Deco. They may also be without Samuel Eto’o and Ronaldinho.

Totti tore a muscle in his left thigh over the weekend in Roma’s draw versus Cagliari. “The team loses in percentage terms for the extraordinary things he’s capable of,” Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said, “But I have a lot of confidence that the team will assume the responsibility of picking up the slack, just as they’ve done in the past when we’ve been without our captain.” United may have been favored anyway and now that Totti is out they are expected to at least get a draw. “Roma is going to be a massive game for us and we prepared the right way with the win against Villa,” said United’s Wayne Rooney, “To be at this club, with the football we play at times, is brilliant. It’s something every player would want to be a part of.”

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Barcelona is still favored to beat Schalke but with four stars possibly missing the game, it is no longer a certainty. Barcelona blew a 2-0 lead over the weekend to Betis in league action and is seven points back of Real Madrid in the Spanish league.

Read more on Soccer Betting Preview: Champions League Quarterfinals Begin Tuesday

Roberto Mancini said on Tuesday that he will resign as Inter Milan’s coach after the season is over. He has been extremely successful at Inter but after his team lost in the Soccer Betting Champions League against Liverpool he made the announcement. “The next two and a half months will be my last as the manager of the team,” Mancini said, “This is a decision that I had already taken and has nothing to do with the defeat to Liverpool.”

Inter Milan leads Serie A by six points with 11 matches left. Inter has won the last two Italian league titles. Mancini became Inter’s manager in 2004 and led the team to the Italian Cup title in his first season at the helm. Many of the players were surprised by the announcement. “We have just been eliminated form the Champions League and it’s a big delusion for everybody,” Inter striker Julio Cruz said. Inter president Massimo Moratti did not have any comment.

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Tuesday’s match against Liverpool was another disappointing one for Inter as they had to play with 10 men for the last 40 minutes after Nicolas Burdisso was sent off. Fernando Torres scored a second-half goal and Liverpool won 1-0 and 3-0 on aggregate to advance. Inter also had to play the first leg with only 10 men for most of the match after Marco Materazzi was sent off.

Read more on Football News: Inter Milan’s Mancini to Resign

Inter Milan faces the tough task of coming back from two goals down when they host Liverpool in the second leg of a Soccer Betting Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday.

Liverpool won the first leg 2-0 last week as Dirk Kuyt and captain Steven Gerrard scored. Inter had to play with only 10 men for much of the match when Marco Materazzi was sent off. They will have to play without Materazzi on Tuesday in addition to injured Ivan Cordoba and Walter Samuel. Inter may be getting defender Christian Chivu back on Tuesday though. “I still have pain, but the threshold than I can take has moved considerably higher,” Chivu said. “I will put myself at the disposition of the coach.”

Inter is a half goal favorite with a total of 2.5 under -140 at SBG Global.
The three-way line has Inter -115, Liverpool +270 and the draw at +200.

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Liverpool is trying to make it four English teams in the quarterfinals as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are already in.

Read more on Football Betting Preview: Liverpool vs Inter Milan in Champions League

Premier League teams are doing quite well in the Soccer Betting Champions League as Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have all moved into the quarterfinals. There could be a fourth Premier League team that makes the final eight as Liverpool holds a nice lead against Inter Milan heading into their second leg game next week. “What will be, will be,” Chelsea’s Frank Lampard said. “If all four of us go through - and Liverpool are in a good position - there will be a great chance of an all-English match. It’s obviously great for England if we’re all in there but if we draw one we will have to deal with it.”

Wednesday’s Champions League games saw Chelsea defeating Olympiakos 3-0 while AS Roma eliminated Real Madrid 2-1 and Schalke beat FC Porto 4-1 on penalties after the teams went into extra time with the aggregate score tied at 1-1. The loss by Real Madrid was a surprise as the Spanish champs were knocked out for the fourth straight season. Madrid had lost the first leg game 2-1 and needed a victory but couldn’t get it as Roma won 2-1 again. Substitute Mirko Vucinic headed in the game winner in injury time to give Roma the 4-2 aggregate win. “Vucinic’s entrance changed the game,” Roma coach Luciano Spaletti said. “All of the subs who came in maintained the team’s equilibrium and made important contributions. We controlled well and had better intentions about taking this game. And we responded to the challenge.”

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Frank Lampard was involved in all three goals as Chelsea routed Olympiakos 3-0. He scored one and assisted on Michael Ballack and Salomon Kalou’s goals. Ballack opened the scoring in the 6th minute and then assisted on Lampard’s goal in the 25th minute. Kalou added the third goal in the 48th minute.

Read more on Soccer News: Manchester United, Arsenal, & Chelsea Advance in Champions League

AS Roma blew their chance to defeat Inter Milan giving up a goal in the 88th minute and it may have ended any chance they had at catching Inter in the Soccer Betting Serie A standings. Inter holds a nine-point lead on Roma with 13 rounds remaining, and the teams do not meet again this season. “It’s a draw that’s worth as much as a victory, for the way it came about,” Inter coach Roberto Mancini said.

Javier Zanetti scored in the 88th-minute to keep Inter undefeated this season.
“We’ve got a pretty good lead but we’ve got to keep going,” Zanetti said. “We still need to improve our form, because we’re not at our best.” Roma had taken the lead on a goal from Francesco Totti in the 38th minute. Inter had just missed earlier when Hernan Crespo hit one off the post. Inter was down to 10 men after losing Maxwell but Roma defender Philippe Mexes picked up his second yellow card that evened things up. Inter nearly scored in the 87th minute but Roma goalkeeper Alexander Doni made the save but he couldn’t stop Zanetti a minute later.

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“We certainly could have closed out the match before, because we created a lot of chances,” Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said. “But we needed to be careful because they had three strikers on and we couldn’t get out of balance.” Inter was without their two top strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Julio Ricardo Cruz due to injury.

Read more on Football Betting Results: Inter Milan and AS Roma play to 1-1 Draw

Champions League Round of 16 action gets underway on Tuesday as Liverpool hosts Inter Milan. It is a tough turnaround for Liverpool as they are coming off a shocking loss to lower-league club Barnsley in the FA Cup. Although Liverpool is at home they face the best team in the Italian League in the first leg on Tuesday. Inter Milan will present a severe test for a Liverpool team that is now playing to save their season and probably the job of manager Rafa Benitez.

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It was expected that Liverpool would make a run at the Premier League title this season but they are already out of contention sitting 19 points back of Arsenal. Liverpool has won nothing this season and now may not even qualify for the Champions League next season. Benitez is under fire after the shocking loss to Barnsley. He rested Pepe Reina, Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano. Liverpool is owned by American co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr. who are not happy with the job Benitez has done. The Champions League is the last chance for Liverpool to save the season.

Read more one Champions League Round of 16

Italian Serie A club AS Roma played host to Reggina just recently for an Italian Serie A match. The AS Roma home side could made use of the home pitch advantage to earn a win. AS Roma dominated most of the possession, and eventually grabbed the 3 points for the Italian Serie A standings with a 2-0 victory.

Scoring for AS Roma were Alessandro Mancini and Christian Panucci. Also dishing out a fine performance for AS Roma were key players Francesco Totti and Ludovic Giuly.

Read more on Italian Serie A Betting: AS Roma Defeats Reggina 2-0

AS Roma vs. Real Madrid

Bet on AS Roma!

Italian Serie A club AS Roma have been quite formiddable in the UEFA Champions League, posting 3 wins, 2 draws and only 1 loss during the group stages. In their campaign for the Italian Serie A title, AS Roma are 2nd place so far in the standings, behind Serie A leaders Inter Milan by 8 points.

AS Roma, coached by Luciano Spalletti, will be relying on key players like David Pizarro, Philippe Mexes, Simone Perrotta, Ludovic Giuly and Francesco Totti to deliver a victory over Real Madrid.

Read more on UEFA Champions League Betting Review: AS Roma vs. Real Madrid