Europa League – Galatasaray vs Barcelona RO16
After ending their first game at a bore draw, Galatasaray and Barcelona will play it back again at NEF Stadyumu in Istanbul on 17. March. This is a chance for both teams to turn their season around as the domestic title is escaping both teams.
Barcelona has never won the second-tier competition of Europe, while Galatasaray hopes to repeat their greatest European success from 1999 when they won the competition, called the UEFA Cup back then.
Keep reading for more info about our Galatasaray vs Barcelona prediction.
Galatasaray vs Barcelona Recent Form
It was only a week ago that Galatasaray and Barcelona played their first Europa League match. Since then they both had domestic duties to deal with and both teams recorded wins.
Cimbom played against their long-time rivals Besiktas and defeated them at home by 2:1. It took Kerem Aktürkoğlu only 32 minutes to score a brace in a span of 10 minutes. Bringing Galatasaray to a decisive lead in the first half. The only thing that Besiktas could do was to score a consolidation goal, which Rıdvan Yılmaz did in the 85th minute of the match.
On the other hand, Barcelona had a very impressive display as they won 4:0 against Osasuna in La Liga. It was all done after the first half as Ferran Torres scored two and Aubameyang added a third for the Catalan club. Riqui Puig made it four with his first goal of the season late in the second half.
Galatasaray vs Barcelona Recent Matchups
Galatasaray can count themselves lucky for not conceding at least one goal at Nou Camp in the first match. Barca had more than 60% of the ball in their possession during that match. More so, they had 14 shots in total with four of them going on target. Meanwhile, Galata only had three shots with only one going towards Ter Stegen.
Counting this match, the two teams played eight games in total against each other. Barcelona has five wins and Galatasaray only one. Two matches concluded without a winner.
Galatasaray vs Barcelona Stats & Analysis
Galatasaray finished first in the Europa League group stages. They managed to get to the Round of 16 by overcoming Lazio and Olympique Marseille. For now, they haven’t recorded a loss during their 2021/22 Europa League campaign. They had three wins and three draws during the group stage. Add to that the draw against Barcelona and Galata are undefeated so far.
Barcelona had a dismal start of the season and finished third in their Champions League group . They ended up in the Europa League playoffs where they eliminated Napoli by a joint score of 5:3. After playing 1:1 at home, Blaugrana went on the road to Sicilia to defeat Napoli by 4:2. This earned them a spot in the Round of 16 and made them legitimate favourites to potentially capture the Europa League trophy.
Galatasaray vs Barcelona Betting Tips
Barcelona is a massive favourite at 1.40. Galatasaray are 9.00 underdogs at home, which is of great value but comes with a lot of risks. Since Barca’s defence is their weakest part of the team, we propose betting on Both Teams to Score at 1.97.
Away Team to Win to Nil is rated at 2.28 which could prove to be the best bet for our Galatasaray vs Barcelona prediction.
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