Betting On The Champions League

• By Peter Merifield
• Published August 12, 2011

If you are thinking of placing a bet on the Champions League this coming season, I would recommend placing your money on one of the English teams involved, or Barcelona or Real Madrid. Though it is Manchester City’s first season, they have a lot of players with plenty of experience in the tournament which means that they can be considered dark horses yet you will probably get very good odds for them. Manchester United always do well in the tournament because Sir Alex Ferguson understands how crucial defence is in the Champions League as every team has the quality going forward to potentially unlock any defence, so he normally plays one up front and packs the central midfield with three players. With the acquisition of Ashley Young from Aston Villa and Phil Jones from Blackburn and with Wesley Sneijder to perhaps follow from Inter Milan, they are definitely worth a Champions League bet.
    Chelsea should be hoping to do better than they have in previous years, but this will surely depend on whether they can get Fernando Torres scoring again. Their attempt to buy Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspur shows that they are looking for a creative midfielder to unlock defences, and this makes sense since Frank Lampard has never re-found his previous form after the English debacle during the 2010 World Cup. Michael Essien is also out for six months following surgery on his troublesome knee and Yossi Benayoun has yet to prove effective since his signing from Liverpool.
    Barcelona play such beautiful and devastating football betting odds are always going to be unfavourable but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t a team to back as the steepness of their odds just reflects the fact that they have won the tournament for the last two years and are quite likely to win it again this year. David Villa is the best striker in the world, Messi is the best player in the world and Xavi and Iniesta are the best midfielders in the world, so they will always possess the strength and depth in squad to challenge for the crown.