Champions League semi-final preview

As the season draws to a close, we approach the business end of the most prestigious competition in European football – the UEFA Champions League.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will see the final four teams left in the competition battle it out over two legs to decide who makes it to Wembley for next month’s finale.

We preview each of the first legs below.

Bet on Football with William Hill

Bayern Munich v Real Madrid – Tuesday 20:00

Game one looks a to be a real clash of the titans, certainly a matchup worthy of a final let alone a semi. From the outset, Bayern find themselves the favourites by the narrowest of margins at 29/20, which can certainly be accredited to their home advantage, with Real Madrid just behind them at 17/10 to take a win in the opening leg.

This matchup is the most played fixture in the history of the Champions League with both teams meeting a record 26 times. 24 of those have come in the knockout stages, with this year being the eighth time they’ve come across one another in a semi-final. Most recently, Real Madrid have been the dominant side – beating Bayern in six of their last seven meetings.

Bayern do have the home advantage though, and despite a disappointing league campaign by their standards, they’re still very much in with a shout of some silverware in this competition. Bayern’s new number nine, Harry Kane, has been a weapon this season and is 11/10 to find the back of the net against Los Blancos, with Mathys Tel and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting the next best bets at 23/10 and 13/5 respectively.

Despite being the ‘outsiders’ in this game, Madrid are unbeaten in their last 10 fixtures in the Champions League with seven wins and three draws. The last time they had a run like this without a defeat, they went on to win the competition in the 2016-17 season.

It’s no secret that Madrid have immense firepower in the forms of Vinicius (17/10), Jude Bellingham (17/10) and Joselu (11/5), who are all more than capable of hitting the net at anytime in the match. Real will be likely be hoping to strike at the Allianz to take a scoreline back to the Bernabeu that they can really have a go at.

Borussia Dortmund v Paris Saint-Germain – Wednesday 20:00

We’ve got a really competitive game in the other semi-final between hosts Borussia Dortmund and visitors Paris Saint-Germain. If the odds are anything to go by, PSG won’t be phased by a lack of home advantage in the first leg, sitting as the current favourites at 11/8. The German hosts however don’t sit far off in the market at 17/10 to take an aggregate lead to Paris.

The home side have only won one of their last six meetings against the French giants – two of which coming this season – but have managed to stay unbeaten when playing them at home. However, in their first meeting in this year’s group stage, PSG did manage to put two past them without reply, while the second game resulted in a 1-1 draw in west Germany. In the latter game, it was Karim Adeyemi who opened the scoring and he’s 16/5 to make his presence known yet again, with the market leaders to find the back of the net being Niclas Fullkrug at 15/8 (the highest scoring Dortmund player in the league on 12), Youssoufa Moukoko at 2/1 and Donyell Malen (9/4).

Despite being renowned as one of the top teams in the world, PSG have only managed to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League on three previous occasions. With a talented squad and the firepower to match, this year looks as good as any to proceed to the final. Unsurprisingly, the goalscoring machine that is Kylian Mbappe is odds-on to hit the back of the net at 17/20, with Goncalo Ramos (7/4) and Randal Kolo Muani (12/5) the next best in the betting.