Galatasaray vs Real Madrid
Turkish champions Galatasaray will have to take inspiration from Liverpool's dramatic comeback in the 2005 Champions League final in the same city when they host Real Madrid to stand any chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. Real Madrid, fortunate to be in the quarter final themselves after their controversial win against Man United in the previous round, take a 3-0 lead going into the fixture and have a fully fit squad to choose from, so it is no surprise that Galatasaray are a long shots to qualify at 25/1.
Perhaps a more realistic shot would be to back the Turkish outfit to win the match at 14/5, boasting a fairly decent home record against Spanish opposition having won 5, drawn 2 and lost 5. In fact, their most recent success came against Real Madrid in the same round of the 2000/2001 season, running out 3-2 victors on that occasion.
Real Madrid on the other hand are on a 12 match unbeaten run in all competitions and will be in the scoring mood after their 5-1 league rout at the weekend against Levante. This season's top -scorer in the competition Cristiano Ronaldo (with 9 goals) is 5/2 to score first. You can back them to win the competition outright at 2/1.
Borussia Dortmund vs Malaga
It's everything to play for in this second leg tie after this season's surprise outfit Malaga held out for a 0-0 draw in the first leg and Borussia Dortmund will hope they won't live to regret not grabbing a vital away goal in the first game.
This is the German side's last chance of silverware this season after Bayern Munich were finally confirmed as Bundesliga champions at the weekend but with key players rested in their 4-2 victory over FC Augsburg at the weekend and home advantage, Dortmund are clear favourites for the match at 2/5. Polish power-house and hot transfer target Robert Lewandowski is in good form again this season and will hope to put himself in the shop window with another scoring performance and you can back him at 5/2 to score first.
Malaga clearly face an uphill task against the only undefeated team in this year's competition. In fact, Borussia have won all their home games this season, having only conceded one goal in the process. But as we have witnessed on several occasions this year, anything can happen and Malaga winger Joaquim Sanchez is remaining optimistic about the game being quoted as saying "if we manage to score in Dortmund we can make the tie complicated for them" so backing Malaga at 9/4 to qualify looks good value.
