Galatasaray is not your run of the mill Champions League long shot.
While most pesky underdogs in this competition feature one or two star players surrounded by a wanting supporting cast, the Turkish champions have a roster full of familiar names who have had success in Europe’s best leagues.
Players such as Wilfriend Zaha, Dries Mertens, Mauro Icardi and Hakim Ziyech may be past their true primes, but as a unit they have more than enough talent to cause a ruckus.
Just ask Manchester United, which fell to Galatasaray as a big favorite a few weeks ago.
Galatasaray will now try to go one step further with a trip to the Allianz Arena to take on Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
The odds for this fixture tell us that there is a drastic gap between Bayern Munich and Galatasaray, especially with the former playing at home, but I would argue that the market has underrated the Turks from the get-go in this competition and has not yet adjusted to how dangerous Galatasaray is as a big underdog.
While Bayern is one of the best teams in the world (it is the second-favorite to win the Champions League) and deserves to be a decided favorite in this match, it is not without its faults, especially defensively.
In fact, those cracks showed when Bayern traveled to Istanbul two weeks ago.
Bayern defeated Galatasaray, 3-1, in that contest, but the expected goals ended 2.7 to 1.9 in favor of the underdogs.
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Galatasaray deserved better, but it just couldn’t finish.
It takes some gumption to play an underdog at this price, but Galatasaray has already proven it has the ability to pull off stunning results in this competition.
The play: Galatasaray +1200, FanDuel.