Atalanta – Bayer Leverkusen Free Betting Tips
Atalanta receives in the Europa League round of 16 the visit of Germany’s 3rd place Bayer Leverkusem.
After a very disappointing 3rd place finish in the Champions League group, having been beaten 2-3 at home by Villarreal in the last round, Atalanta eliminated Olympiacos Pieru in the last 16 of the Europa League, the Bergamo side beating the Greeks both 2-1 at home and 0-3 in the return leg in Greece.
Bayer Leverkusen, on the other hand, qualified from the group directly into the last 16 after the Germans finished first in a group that also included Ferencvaros, Celtic and Betis.
Bayer were beaten in only one match in the group (in the last round at last-placed Ferencvaros), after a match that the Germans handled with ease, having secured first place ahead of this match. Besides this defeat, Bayer has accumulated 4 wins and a draw.
The current form of the two teams differs slightly this season from the form they were going through last season. Atalanta this season has not fared well against the top teams in Serie A, with Gasperini’s team losing 1-0 to AS Roma in the last round.
Besides this defeat, the team from Bergamo failed to win almost any match against teams in the first part of the standings, but with mediocre teams they have collected enough points to be after 27 rounds in 6th place, 6 points away from the Champions zone, but with a game played less.
On the other side, Bayer really manages to get good results against strong teams, they managed a draw in the last round against the leader Bayer Munich (1-1), and 2 rounds ago they beat the 2nd place Borussia Dortmund in a match played in Dortmund.
I expect to see two goal-filled matches between the two teams, given that the style of both teams is attacking and neither defence has excelled so far. So I will be banking on both teams scoring in this first leg.
BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE – Odds: 1.60
