And then there were eight!
The quarter-finals of the Champions League has thrown up few, if any, surprises and have emphasised, yet again, that it’s imperative that you win your qualifying group. Manchester United‘s name is probably the only unexpected one in the last eight after the first leg of the last 16 ties. They became only the sixth side in Champions League history to overturn a two-goal deficit. Robin van Persie becoming only the fifth Manchester United player to score a hat-trick in the competition. But their victory over Olympiakos came at a price with the Dutchman stretchered off with a knee injury near the end of their game against the Greek champions – at the time of writing, the damage still had to be assessed. It says much about United’s season that their victory was inspired by a recalled 40-year-old and their hopes of getting their hands on the trophy still look remote ahead of the quarter-final draw. Bookmakers concur and David Moyes‘ beleaguered squad are 20/1 with BetVictor, Coral and sportingbet as their possible rivals looks like a who’s who of European football.
It’s no surprise that Bayern Munich remain hot favourites (2/1 with Paddy Power and Stan James). The Germans have terrific strength-in-depth with several options should they lose a key player. The defending champions have had a couple of hiccoughs at the Allianz Arena in the Champions League season but only when the pressure was off. Generally, they win their home games and are able to adapt their tactics to keep things tight on the road so whoever meets Bayern will have their hands full. Only a calculator button is keeping them from being confirmed as Bundesliga champions again.
Real Madrid, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale in fantastic form, look the biggest danger and are a general 4/1 with Barcelona 17/4 with bwin. The Catalans are unaccustomed to not being favourites but layers have realised that this is not the Barca of a couple of years ago and their defensive fragility is likely to be exploited now that they’ve reached the latter stages of the competition. But you underestimate Jose Mourinho and Chelsea at your peril. ‘The Special One’ is a master tactician and the Blues will make life tough for whoever they meet from now on. Stamford Bridge is certainly a difficult place to go in Europe and I’d rather have a punt on Mourinho’s men at the general 12/1 than on PSG at the same odds (BetVictor), who are so reliant on Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
