Well what a week of Champions League action that was? The English clubs had a bit of a horrible time of it with only one winning; Manchester City beating Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk 0-3 in a match where manager Pep Guardiola gave the fringe players a spin out. Liverpool had been favourites prematch with the bookies, priced around 2.35 on average, while the home side, Napoli, were up around 2.95.

Thanks to two late goals Napoli took the three points. It had been a very good matchup with both teams enjoying spells of pressure and when Napoli scored it was slighty against the run of play, but that wily old coach Carlo Ancellotti made a key substitution at 69 minutes, bringing on former Spurs striker Fernando Llorente. Napoli began firing balls up the field to the big man and Liverpool were rattled. Ancellotti using traditional English football tactics against England’s most decorated Champions League winner. Ancellotti has found a weakness in Liverpool, will other opponents pick up on it?

Champions League Betting

Chelsea were 1.78 to beat Valencia and ended up losing too thanks to a goal from Rodrigo. Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley missed a penalty to equalise, much has been made about the former Everton man taking the penalty and on the balance of play Chelsea should really have won. It’s obvious that Frank Lampard’s team needs more gametime to gel, but there are certainly signs that it will come together. Their 2-5 demolition of Wolves last weekend showed us how good they can be when the team clicks.

Lastly then, Spurs drew 2-2 away to Olypmiakos. Manager Mauricio Pochettino was furious at full time saying the team “didn’t respect the plan”. Something doesn’t look right at Spurs, they’ve not been the same team since losing to Liverpool in last season’s Champions League final. Spurs threw away a 0-2 lead, but really they were lucky to be ahead, they were second best for the whole match and had Olypmiakos not been so wasteful in front of goal they should have won.

Champions League Winners Betting

How does the betting look for this season’s winner then? Let’s have a look at the current Top 5 teams in the betting odds.

Man City are favourites to lift the trophy in Istanbul at the end of May 2020, priced around 4.32. The Cityzens face Dinamo Zagreb and Atalanta next at home and really you’d expect City to get through the group stage with full points.

Following behind them are Barcelona, priced around 6.47. The Catalans played out a surprising 0-0 draw away to Borussia Dortmund. The market had expected plenty of goals in the match. Over 2.5 goals had been priced at 1.60. Lionel Messi finally made his first appearance of the season coming on at 59 minutes, shortly after Dortmund attacker Marco Reus had a penalty saved from Marc Andre ter Stegen in the Barca goal.

Next in the betting are Liverpool, priced around 7.88. As written above, they lost their first group match but with the likes of Red Bull Salzburg and Genk as their next opponents you’d fully expect Jurgen Klopp’s Reds to make it into the next round quite easily. PSG are next on the list, they demolished Real Madrid 3-0 at home during the week thanks to two goals from former Blancos winger Angel di Maria and one from Thomas Meunier.

Champions League Betting Tips

Juventus played out a very exciting 2-2 draw away to Atletico Madrid, both teams are expected to qualify easily for the next round, both will have to face Lokomotiv Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen next. The home side came into the match as favourites at around 2.60, while the Old Lady were priced around 3.40. The market didn’t expect many goals though with Over 2 goals priced at 1.84, if you’d bet on Over 3.5 goals you’d have gotten tasty odds of 4.72.

Of course, between now and the end of May there will be many changes in the betting odds, but it’s hard to look past the Top 5 here.