UEFA Champions League Semi-Final 1st Leg Preview – Barcelona vs Liverpool, Wednesday 1st May 2019

With their title hopes hanging on a knife edge domestically, will Liverpool have the focus to escape Barcelona intact on Wednesday, at 8pm on BT Sport 2?

Any other year the Reds would already have the Premier League sewn up. However, despite losing just one league game in 2018/19, that defeat happened to be against their title rivals, allowing Man City to maintain a one point advantage over Liverpool heading into the final fortnight of the season.

It is, then, a less than ideal moment to make a trip to the Nou Camp, the kind of environment that can leave the strongest team in tatters. Still, Liverpool are coming off the back of 10 consecutive wins in all competitions – a run that includes victories over Bayern Munich, Porto, Tottenham and Chelsea – with 26 goals scored and just 7 conceded. In fact, Jurgen Klopp’s lads haven’t lost a game since January 7th, when they were dumped out of the FA Cup by the over-achieving Wolves.

Both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are in fine form. Currently they are totalling 25 and 24 goals respectively this season, but head to Spain with expectation-dampening Super Mega PGMs of 25-30 and 19-23.

In contrast, Lionel Messi – who has an unbeaten 10 goals in the Champions League, and a staggering 46 across all competitions – sits at a Super Mega PGM of 56-66, with Luis Suarez at 33-39 and Ousmane Dembele at 18-22.

One of the key differences going into Tuesday night is that Barcelona don’t have anything else to worry about. They’ve already secure their 26th La Liga title – their 4th in the last 5 seasons – so can focus entirely on securing passage to the Wanda Metropolitano in June. They are yet to lose a game in the Champions League, seeing off Man United with ease in the last round.

Not to be too pessimistic, but if the Reds can get back on the plane to Anfield with an away goal and a manageable deficit to overcome, then that could arguably be classed as a success. Spreadex are offering a Barcelona/Liverpool Goal Supremacy spread of 0.45-0.65, alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.7-2.9.