2010/11 Champions League Group betting odds

After Thursday’s Champions League draw in Monaco, the bookmakers have had a chance to price up the eight groups and Milan are the only Pot 1 team who are not favourites to win their section. That’s because Real Madrid are one of their opponents who were placed in Pot 2 due to having a lesser UEFA coefficient.

GROUP A
There are probably three teams that can win Group A, although it’s the reigning holders who are odds-on to go through as winners. Paddy Power’s 4/5 might not be such a bad price considering that they are the holders and Spurs are inexperienced when it comes to European football. Much depends on how Rafael Benitez manages to impose his tactics on the Inter squad after the Jose Mourinho regime.

Bremen finished third in the Bundesliga last season and they showed their class to knock Sampdoria out in the play-off stage after a slender 5-4 win on aggregate. Indeed, the German team are scoring plenty of goals at the start of the season and conceding them too!

INTERNAZIONALE 4/5 (Paddy Power)
TOTTENHAM 7/2 (Blue Square)
WERDER BREMEN 5/1 (Ladbrokes)
FC TWENTE 20/1 (Ladbrokes)

GROUP B
A competitive three-way tussle looks to be on the cards in Group B, with Benfica looking the value bet at odds of 5/2 with Stan James. The Portuguese side always seem to be strong at home in this competition and it could be that Lyon are looking like a spent force in European football. Claude Puel’s team have had a slow start to the season and could be false favourites simply because they were in Pot 1.

Schalke finished second in the Bundesliga last term and were only five points behind Bayern, having had a real chance to finish ahead of the Champions League finalists before stumbling at home to Van Gaal’s team. However, Felix Magath’s team are having a sorry start to their league campaign and it could be all about Benfica.

OLYMPIQUE LYONNAIS 7/4 (Ladbrokes)
FC SCHALKE 04 21/10 (Sporting Bet)
BENFICA 5/2 (Stan James)
HAPOEL TEL AVIV 18/1 (Blue Square)

GROUP C
The bookmakers are in no doubt that United are the team to beat in Group C, with Paddy Power the only firm to offer 1/3 about the Red Devils. It’s easy to write off Glasgow Rangers who are financially troubled, while the departure of David Villa and David Silva from Valencia this summer makes them a far weaker outfit. Bursaspor are something of an unknown quantity although they are the Turkish champions and shouldn’t be treated lightly.

MANCHESTER UNITED 1/3 (Paddy Power)
VALENCIA 9/2 (bet365)
BURSASPOR 14/1 (Ladbrokes)
RANGERS 18/1 (Sporting Bet)

GROUP D
Rubin Kazan might have stunned the Spanish champions last season when winning at the Nou Camp, although the bookmakers aren’t expecting a repeat this time around. With David Villa and Javier Mascherano having arrived this summer, Barca could be stronger than ever, although it could be an interesting battle for second place. Paddy Power once again stick their neck out, although this price is more one for an accumulator than a single!

FC BARCELONA 1/7 (Paddy Power)
RUBIN KAZAN 10/1 (Ladbrokes)
PANATHINAIKOS 14/1 (Ladbrokes)
FC KOBENHAVN 40/1 (bet365)

GROUP E
It’s hard to see this becoming anything other than a two-team race between Bayern and Roma, although they do face each other in the first match which allows one of the other teams to steal an advantage. Louis Van Gaal will be hoping to go one better than last season, although Claudio Ranieri’s team finished second in Serie A last term and will push them all the way.

BAYERN MUNCHEN 8/13 (Paddy Power)
AS ROMA 15/8 (Ladbrokes)
FC BASEL 18/1 (bet365)
CFR CLUJ 25/1 (bet365)

GROUP F
Marseille finished as champions of France last season, although they lost their two opening matches this season and that’s in stark contrast to the blinding start to the campaign made by Chelsea. The Blues have already won two matches by a 6-0 scoreline and should have few problems finishing top of this section. Indeed, Spartak Moscow could be the team that finishes second under the management of Valery Karpin.

CHELSEA 1/3 (Paddy Power)
OLYMPIQUE MARSEILLE 11/2 (bet365)
SPARTAK MOSCOW 10/1 (Paddy Power)
MSK ZILINA 66/1 (bet365)

GROUP G
Possibly the most intriguing group of this season’s Champions League, especially now that Zlatan Ibrahimovic has left Barcelona to join AC Milan. He will hope to get one over his former Inter manager Jose Mourinho, who faces a tough job to mould new recruits and existing superstars into a Champions League-winning team.

Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil might take some time to settle in at the Bernabeu, while we can expect Martin Jol’s Ajax to take points from one of the two big guns. They managed to retain the services of Luis Suarez in the summer and will be a tough prospect on home soil. Real and Milan met at the group stage last season and it was the Italian side that had a better head-to-head record after winning at the Bernabeu Stadium.

REAL MADRID 8/13 (Stan James)
AC MILAN 11/4 (bet365)
AJAX 9/1 (bet365)
AJ AUXERRE 18/1 (bet365)

GROUP H
Arsenal comfortably won Group H last season and it should be a similar story for Arsene Wenger’s team this time around. The Gunners will have been delighted to have avoided teams like Roma and Real Madrid from Pot 2, although Braga are an interesting prospect after knocking out Celtic and Sevilla to reach this stage of the competition.

They could easily have the beating of Shakhtar, who signed Eduardo from Arsenal in the summer and the Croatian will have an emotional return to the Emirates this autumn.

ARSENAL 2/5 (Ladbrokes)
SHAKHTAR DONETSK 6/1 (bet365)
SPORTING DE BRAGA 13/2 (bet365)
FK PARTIZAN 25/1 (bet365)