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Sixteen teams are left in Europe’s elite club competition, with the draw set to take place this Friday (18th December). While all of these sides finished either first or second in a tough qualifying group, the Champions League is in danger of becoming predictable, with only a handful of teams likely to reach the final at the Bernabeu Stadium.

While Porto and Monaco contested the final in season 2003/4, it’s hard to imagine a Portuguese team facing a French side in Madrid next May. The strength of the Premier League in England and the Primera Liga in Spain mean that the first five in the outright betting are clubs based in these countries. FC Barcelona (7/2 Ladbrokes) are favourites with most bookmakers on the basis that they won the Champions League last season and have retained the nucleus of the squad that were victorious.

The other semi-finalists last season were Manchester United (15/2 bet365), Chelsea (4/1 Coral) and Arsenal (10/1 Coral), with the three English clubs all winning their qualifying groups this season and therefore set to meet a runner-up from one of the other groups. On a separate note, it’s hard to understand why Sir Alex Ferguson’s team are so much bigger in the betting than the Blues, especially as little separates them in the Premier League and the Red Devils are likely to improve as the season wears on.

The only other team trading at single-figure odds are Real Madrid (6/1 Victor Chandler), whose ‘riches’ brought Xabi Alonso, Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema to the club over the summer. It’s on this basis that they are added to this list of favourites, and these five English and Spanish teams provide an obstacle for any other team attempting to win the competition. Part of the problem is that all ties until the final will be two-legged affairs, so this eliminates the chance of any upsets like we might see during next year’s World Cup. A top team can afford to play one poor match and still scramble through to the next stage.

Inter (16/1 Coral) might be the outstanding team in Italy, having won Serie A for the past couple of seasons under Jose Mourinho, although the team were easily beaten by Manchester United last season and this illustrates that the domestic league in Italy and other nations are some way behind England and Spain. Indeed, Greek champions Olympiakos were made to work hard for a 1-0 victory at home to Arsenal in their last group game, despite Arsene Wenger fielding an entire reserve team.

The one outsider that could go further than the betting suggests are Sevilla at odds of 22/1. Bet365 might be underestimating a team that easily won their qualifying group and have almost become the forgotten third Spanish team in the competition. Sky Bet’s quote of 14/1 seems nearer to the mark about a team that have already beaten Real this season and sit just four points behind the moneybags team.