Wednesday, March 11, promises to be one of the loudest days of the current UEFA Champions League season. Today we are in for a rematch of the FIFA Club World Cup final, as well as the already classic confrontation between Real Madrid and Manchester City. In addition, the Norwegian fairy tale in the European cups will continue with a test against Sporting Lisbon, while Arsenal could extend their winning streak in the UCL to nine matches in a row. The TipsGG analytics team has prepared the traditional digest with their betting picks for each match.
Bayer vs Arsenal
In the most recent Bundesliga round, Bayer shared points with Freiburg away, drawing 3:3. The Leverkusen side came from behind twice and could have won, but the hosts scored in the 86th minute. As a result, the pharmaceutical club currently sits in 6th place in the league, just 3 points behind the Champions League zone.
Arsenal waited for yet another slip-up from their closest rival Manchester City, while the Gunners themselves handled Brighton – not without some questions – but now lead their opponent by 7 points with not many rounds left until the end of the season. Arteta sensibly rotated the squad in the cup tie against Mansfield, but the Gunners still came out as winners there too.
In the Champions League, they went through the group stage flawlessly, finishing first with a goal difference of 23:4. Arsenal also have a relatively easy path to the semi-finals compared to their competitors. But could this play a cruel joke on Arteta’s men?
The most important thing for Arsenal is not to underestimate the opponent, because Bayer will surely place great emphasis on this home leg. It’s worth noting that in their last 6 home matches, Leverkusen have conceded exactly 1 goal – a clear sign they are trying to defend reliably.
Bet for the match: Bayer Double Chance (1X) & Total Under 3.5 (odds 3.1)
Arsenal are clearly superior in class, the visitors have a completely different level of personnel, but this is not the kind of club that takes big risks or enters open-game scenarios. That’s why I suggest a cautious pick: the hosts do not lose + total under 3.5 goals. Both teams will play carefully to preserve their chances for the return leg.
Real Madrid vs Manchester City
A terrible injury wave has hit the royal club: at least seven first-team players, including Kylian Mbappé, will miss the first leg of the round of 16. It can be said that this is the worst stretch of the season for Los Blancos – without key performers they simply cannot find their rhythm. Every victory, like the recent one over Celta (2:1), comes with enormous difficulty, and sometimes thanks to sheer luck. Over the last five matches, Los Merengues have lost twice, which cost them the La Liga lead. In the Champions League round of 32, Madrid scraped past Benfica, not without problems. Still, we all know: you can never write Real off in their favourite competition.
Manchester City, on the contrary, are on the rise. The team is unbeaten in 11 straight games, winning nine of them. This run allowed the Sky Blues to knock Newcastle out of the FA Cup, while the Premier League title race remains wide open. At the moment, the Mancunians trail Arsenal by 7 points, but they have a game in hand.
The teams have met each other for five consecutive seasons, and even in this campaign they already crossed paths in the group stage. Back then, Manchester City beat Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu with a deserved 2:1 victory.
Bet for the match: Real Madrid Individual Total Yellow Cards Over (2) (odds 1.75)
The hosts will be forced to play second fiddle. The personnel losses will make Álvaro Arbeloa patch holes, which will lead to mistakes in positional play and, as a consequence, to disciplinary sanctions.
Bodø/Glimt vs Sporting
The incredible season for the local side continues at Aspmyra. Bodø/Glimt will host Sporting, who are unbeaten in their last 12 matches.
In their most recent game, Bodø/Glimt won the Norwegian Cup match, extending their unbeaten run in official games to seven. Without any doubt, the Yellow Horde has become one of the main sensations of the season: already in their debut campaign at this level, the team reached the round of 16. Victories over European giants such as Inter, Manchester City and Atlético only underline the strength and ambition of the Norwegian club.
Sporting arrive for this game after a draining match against Braga (2:2), in which the Lisbon side threw away the win in stoppage time, ending their run of four consecutive victories. It was precisely their confident home form that became the key to the success of the Lisbon Lions in the Champions League – the team collected maximum points in all four home matches. By the way, only a handful of clubs managed the same result at this stage of the competition, among them Bayern, Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea.
At the same time, all of Sporting’s away matches in the most prestigious European cup ended with both teams scoring. A similar trend can be seen in Bodø/Glimt’s home games – only one match at home finished with just one team scoring.
Bet for the match: Bodø/Glimt Double Chance (1X) & Both Teams To Score – Yes (odds 2.16)
Considering Sporting’s not entirely convincing away performances, the tough match against Braga which also took place two days later than their opponent’s last game, and the traditionally unusual artificial pitch at Aspmyra for many teams, the hosts look capable of avoiding defeat. Moreover, a scenario with goals from both sides looks quite logical.
PSG vs Chelsea
Last season the French finally won the Champions League. And overall in 2025 they collected an incredible number of trophies. Ironically, their only failure came at the hands of Chelsea – they lost the Club World Cup final to them. But in this calendar year, after a hard penalty-shootout win in the domestic Super Cup, there was an early cup exit to Paris (likely referring to domestic cup), and in Ligue 1 they still cannot pull away from Lens.
Maresca managed to lift Chelsea to fourth place in the Premier League and win the Conference League before his summer success. But by New Year he was sacked due to disagreements with the board. Overall, his successor Rosenyor is coping. However, they lost in the League Cup semi-final to Arsenal. And in the Premier League, climbing higher than fourth place looks unlikely.
The title holders started the Champions League with three consecutive wins. But in the main round they only managed one victory – over Tottenham – and collected five points. So they had to play the February playoff round – there they scored one more goal than Monaco: 3-2 away, 2-2 at home.
The London guests started with a 1-3 defeat to Bayern, but then picked up ten points in the next four rounds. After the December 1-2 loss at Atalanta, in 2026 they beat Pafos and even Napoli – enough to finish the main round inside the top eight.
Bet for the match: Both Teams To Score – Yes (odds 1.52)
Everyone is expecting a Paris win here, but the visitors have their own arguments – picking an outright winner in this match is too difficult, so we go with both teams to score.