Champions League odds : Barcelona Ajax steals headlines of bumper fixtures
The latest Barcelona Ajax odds as the Catalan giants get their Champions League campaign off at the Nou Camp tonight.
Barcelona touted as 1/7 favourites to defeat Ajax as two of Europe’s biggest clubs meet in Group H whilst Milan and Borussia Dortmund also look to start with a win.
Despite their legendary statuses across the continent, Wednesday will become the first time Barcelona and Ajax have played against each other in a competitive fixture.
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It is a remarkable feature considering that both teams have won multiple titles at European level and are some of the best know sides in football.
Ahead of the groundbreaking tie, Barcelona will be without two key defensive players as Jordi Alba was ruled out for a few weeks after picking up an injury over the weekend and Carlos Puyol is still not quite fully fit.
But Barcelona might be ready to unleash their headline signing Neymar to the world after the Brazilian was rested over the past couple of games.
It will give Ajax some cause for concern as manager Frank De Boer looks to get one over the side he used to play for during the earlier part of his career.
He won’t be the only member of the Ajax squad facing his former employers as Spanish striker Bojan Krkic is also set to line-up against the Spanish champions.
Despite losing Toby Aldeweireld and Christian Eriksen in the transfer window, the Dutch champions will be hoping that
the likes of Siem de Jong and Kolbein Sigthorsson wil continue their good scoring form from Eredivisie to the European stage.
The other game in Group G sees another two well known European sides face off against one another as AC Milan take on Scottish side Celtic.
Milan have been hit by several injury concerns with several star names such as Kaka, Andrea Poli and captain Riccardo Montolivo all out of Wednesday’s clash.
Celtic will be hoping to take advantage of this as they head to the San Siro although they are missing some of their own players through injury as Joe Ledley, Beram Kayal and James Forrest are all ruled out of the fixture.
Meanwhile, Group F also sees two current in-form sides face off against each other as last year’s finalists Borussia Dortmund travel to Italy to face Serie A runners up Napoli.
Dortmund have been electric in the Bundesliga so far maintaining an unbeaten start to the season and have most of their major players although captain Sebastian Kehl will be out of action with an ankle injury sustained over the weekend.
Napoli look like they will have a fully fit squad with both Marek Hamsik and Jose Callejon returning to the side having been rested during Saturday’s win over Atalanta.
With so many top teams facing each other in the early stages of the competition, it could mean that the group standing may look unfamiliar come Thursday morning.
