It will long go down in memory as one of the greatest ever games of football. We are talking about Barcelona’s epic UEFA Champions League comeback effort against PSG this week. Barcelona had put in a shocking performance in Paris for the first leg, coming away with a 4-0 loss and their tails between their legs. It had left PSG a best-priced 1/12 to qualify for the quarter finals because of the dominance that they had shown in the first leg.
But this is Barcelona, and if one team in the world could ever have pulled off such a comeback it was them. It was a night at the Nou Camp not even the most optimistic of Barcelona fans or punters would have ever expected and while most bookmakers were hammered by Barcelona’s comeback, Bet365 reported a record-breaking liability on a single match after punters had flocked to back a Barca fightback.
A spokesman for the firm said “We do many expensive offers with free bets and the like but taking them away I can’t recall such a heavy defeat on a stand-alone contest,” said Freeth.
“Our liabilities were up to a few million before the game with punters backing them from 20-1 into 7-1 to qualify. Our worst scenario in-play was going to be Barcelona pulling off the impossible late on and that’s what we got.”
Barcelona had gotten themselves 3-0 up in the second leg, before Edinson Cavani netted what looked to be the salvation for PSG, a vital away goal. It left Barcelona needing three more goals in the last 20 minutes of the game. Both Coral and Paddy Power saw Barca drift out to 100/1 with minutes remaining, but then Neymar netted a quick double before Roberto did the unthinkable and sunk home a cool winner deep into the five minutes of stoppage time that was being played.
So with a lot of punters avoiding PSG and just going for Barcelona to qualify on the night at long odds, it proved a costly night for bookmakers up and down the country. Barcelona are new joint 11/4 favourites to win the UEFA Champions League having drifted out to 700 on Betfair’s exchange during the match.
“It was a terrible outcome,” said a Coral spokesperson. “It will go down as one of the greatest comebacks in football history but it will be a game bookmakers will want to forget in a hurry as it proved costly.
“Barcelona were very popular to qualify before the game and we saw plenty of support in-play to leave us licking our wounds.”
