Football is well and truly back for another season of thrills, wonder-goals and upsets on the pitch, not to mention the chance to win some money at the bookies. The domestic season is well and truly in full swing while the international teams are in the midst of a scrap for World Cup qualification. However, the thing that most football fans are looking forward to this season has yet to fully kick off – the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League.
The 63rd season of the most prestigious club competition in Europe, if not the world, is set for its opening round of fixtures on Tuesday September 12 and Wednesday September 13. With six British Clubs involved in the group stages – Celtic, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – fans from all over the UK will be invested in the outcomes of these games. You might even want to invest a bit of money on the opening round of fixtures or, alternatively, you might be considering placing an ante-post bet on the overall winner of the competition. Whatever your Champions League betting endeavour may be, we’ll keep you in the know.
Can a British Team lift the Trophy?
Not since Chelsea lifted the European Cup in 2012 has there been a British victor in Europe’s elite football competition. Since Chelsea beat Bayern Munich on penalties in at the German team’s home ground, the Allianz Arena, the trophy has been shared around by Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid. Could 2018 be the year that an English football club returns to the top of the European Game? Or could Celtic defy all of the odds to win their first European trophy since 1967?
Thanks to Manchester United’s victory in the UEFA Cup last year, there will be a total of six teams competing from the United Kingdom and it is arguable that we have a better chance than ever of seeing a home-grown winner. Although, while buying more lottery tickets might improve your chance of being a winner, having more British teams in the Champions League doesn’t necessarily make for a better chance of the trophy coming to the UK if there is a gulf in quality on the pitch.
Fans of Manchester United and Manchester City will have the highest levels of optimism going into the competition. Both Manchester clubs can be found with odds of 12/1 to be the overall winners of the tournament come the final which will be held in Kiev in May next year. Looking at the each team’s credentials, it’s hard to pick too many differences: both Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have two Champions League wins under their belts with Porto and Chelsea for the Portuguese manager and Barcelona for the Spaniard while both teams have some serious fire-power in their squads.
As for the other British hopes, Chelsea can be found with odds of 18/1 which isn’t a bad shout if you consider the sheer dominance that the London club had in the Premier league last season. Then again, if The Blues’ form so far this season is anything to go by, then they might not breeze through a tough group which includes the likes of Atletico Madrid and Roma.
Liverpool are currently sitting on odds of 25/1 to win their sixth trophy in the premier European club competition. We’re sure that pretty much every fan of the Liverpool persuasion has already placed their money on their beloved Reds to win this year’s Champions League, along with every other competition that the team is involved in. However, it’s not too farfetched to imagine Jurgen Klopp’s team going far in the competition, especially with the attacking intent that the team have shown. We can see them easily getting out of their group – in which the only real threat is Sevilla – where they could get a favourable draws to take them close to the final. Plus, you can always back an attacking team like Liverpool to score away goals which could be vital in the team’s progression later in the season.
It will be a tall order for Tottenham to even progress from their group, let alone win the Champions League. It’s fair to say that Spurs got dealt the dreaded “group of death” with Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, giving them odds of 40/1 to win the competition and odds of 10/11 to qualify. That said, it could be close between Dortmund and Spurs as to who gets that second qualification spot, especially with the German side losing one of their key players in Ousmane Dembele.
Spurs fans can at least take some consolation from the fact that they don’t have the longest odds for a British team to win the Champions League. That unwanted accolade goes to Celtic who have been given odds of 1,000/1 by Blacktype sportsbook. The Bhoys come up against Paris Saint German and Bayern Munich in Group B and they have joint odds with Anderlecht of 5/6 to finish bottom of the group. Outside of the British teams, punters will find shorter and perhaps safer odds with the likes of Real Madrid emerging as early favourites on 4/1. Meanwhile, Barcelona, PSG and Bayern Munich are all pipped at odds of 7/1 with Juventus on 17/1 and Atletico Madrid with 22/1.
Other bets
Realistically, the majority of sensible punters are going to back a team with outright odds to win the Champions League of 22/1 or shorter. Even then, it’s a bit of a risk to back a team to win a competition in May before a ball has even been kicked. In other words, a lot can happen between now and the Champions League final.
So, if you don’t feel like placing any wagers on the outright winner markets, what kind of other bets are available to place? Well, apart from individual match markets, there are a number of interesting outright betting markets that might take the fancy of punters looking to make money from betting on the Champions League. For instance, you can take a punt on which nationality the winning team will be, with Spain at the top of the odds list with 7/4 while England is second on 11/4. Germany, France and Italy are next at 5/1, 6/1 and 9/1 respectively with odds of 30/1 available if you think the winner will hail from any other country.
If you’re solely interested in the success of Premier League teams, then you can wager on the furthest progressing Premier League Team. This market is offered at the BetWay online sports betting site with odds of 2/1 for Manchester City, 9/4 for Manchester United, 11/4 for Chelsea, 6/1 for Liverpool and 11/1 for Tottenham. Bettors would be wise to remember that the heavy underdogs Leicester were the last British team in the competition last year.
Two interesting bets to consider are the “to win all 6 group games” and “to lose all 6 group games” markets. No team managed either feat in the competition last year so it is understandable that you will get some favourable odds on such an eventuality this time around. Backing a team like Real Madrid to get maximum points in the group stage will give you 9/1 odds while Man Utd are at 10/1, Barcelona and Bayern Munich at 12/1, PSG at 14/1, Liverpool and Man City at 16/1 and Chelsea at 18/1. On the flip side, APOEL Nicosia are the favourites to score nil points with odds of 4/1 while FK Karabakh are at 6/1 and Maribor and Olympiakos sit at 9/1. Celtic, unfortunately, aren’t too far off the pace to come away without a result with odds of 12/1.
