New York Post

Bye-bye Bayern? — Lazio can pull upset

- By MICHAEL LEBOFF actionnetw­ork.com

Bayern Munich could be in a world of hurt come Tuesday evening. Already enduring a disappoint­ing season in the Bundesliga, the Bavarians trail Lazio, 1-0, ahead of the second leg of their Round of 16 match in the Champions League.

Bayern is still a prohibitiv­e -285 favorite at DraftKings to advance. It is -360 to win the match in three-way betting, but that number feels like poison for a few reasons.

First of all, Bayern just isn’t playing up to its standards this season. The Bavarians have won 11 Bundesliga titles in a row, but they’re 10 points behind Bayer Leverkusen with 12 matches to go and are mired in a 1-1-3 (W-D-L) stretch across all competitio­ns.

The disappoint­ing campaign has already led to the club and manager

Thomas Tuchel to announce that he will leave in the summer and there are plenty of rumors that the players are hoping that Tuchel departs before that. Bayern had been the picture of stability for decades, but things are in disarray.

Another reason to be skeptical that this will be one-way traffic is that Lazio will be happy to sit deep from the opening kickoff. The Italians know that there’s only one realistic path to success in this match and it’s to park the bus and force Bayern to break them down. That’s not how Bayern wants to play.

In short, this looks like a classic case of a “must-win tax” being baked into the market. Bayern has shown time and again this season that it can lose to anybody. Take a shot on Lazio to win in 90 minutes at a big price.

THE PLAY: Lazio +950. Michael Leboff handicaps soccer for Action Network.

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