THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE quarter-finals conclude this midweek as Liverpool travel to Porto. Daniel McCulloch (@DMcCulloch1984) shares his betting thoughts.
Porto v Liverpool | Wednesday 17th April 2019, 20:00 | BT Sport
Perhaps surprisingly, my initial view here was to back Under 2.5 Goals. My logic being that two of Liverpool's most difficult recent away matches – at Goodison and Old Trafford – have finished goalless and also the fact that Porto have failed to scored against them in any of their three encounters in the last 13 months.
However, while the Reds performances away from home in the group stages of this competition were quite poor, they were back to their devastating best when winning in Munich in the last round.
Moreover, in games such as this I would far rather take the 11/1 on No Goalscorer than around evens on Under 2.5 Goals. If the game is goalless at half-time, Liverpool may well simply let the second half peter out, safe in the knowledge that Porto don't have the firepower to hurt them.
With that in mind I have decided to leave the goals market and focus on a familiar favourite of this column.
Sadio Mane is 15/8 to score anytime with Bet365 and given that the Senegalese has scored in 11 of his past 21 Premier League and Champions League encounters that seems a great price to me. He managed a double against Bayern Munich last month as well as a hat-trick on this very ground last season.
His pace will be a real threat on the break and I would probably take 6/4 so am very happy with this price.
Best Bets
Porto v Liverpool – Sadio Mane to score anytime (15/8 Bet365)
