City still favourites for Euro glory despite Real difficult draw...
CITY remain favourites at Betfred to win their Holy Grail – the Champions League .
They are 4/1 to win the competition, while holders Liverpool are 9/2 – just ahead of 5/1 Barcelona – while Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus are 10/1 shots.
Pep Guardiola’s team, jubilant after the humbling of Arsenal at the Emirates, have drawn one of the hardest possible last-16 ties in Europe’s elite competition in Real Madrid.
Zinedine Zidane’s aristocrats are 13 times winners of the Big Ears trophy, while for City they are out to make history by winning it for the first time.
Champions League glory is what the club’s Abu Dhabi owners crave more than anything, but despite great success on the domestic front City have sometimes struggled against Europe’s best, although of course it was Spurs who beat them in the quarter-finals last season.
Liverpool also have a tough one against Atletico Madrid, while Spurs take on Red Bull Leipzig – and it is German opposition too for Chelsea, who have drawn Bayern Munich (15/2 to win the Champions League).
Chelsea have unsurprisingly drifted to 40/1 after the toughest draw of the English contingent, while Spurs have been cut to 20/1, especially as Jose Mourinho is particularly astute at winning one-off, high profile matches.
Despite the brilliant Kevin de Bruyne inspiring City against outclassed, hapless Arsenal on Sunday, they are still 7/1 for the Premier League title. Runaway leaders Liverpool are 1/8 – and second-placed Leicester are 25/1 at Betfred.
Even at this stage it is looking like those three will finish in the top four, but the battle for the remaining place between Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal – and of course mighty United – is getting interesting.
Betfred have Chelsea 10/11, Spurs 6/5, and the Reds 9/2 for a top four finish with Arsenal drifting to 20/1.
We have noticed a significant upsurge in the number of goals scored in the Premier League, and indeed in all the professional and semi-pro leagues this season.
I did think it was something to do with VAR but I’m reckoning it has more to do with the lack of quality defenders – and teams at last realising it is better to win one and lose one than draw two.
That’s why the bet of one footie fan from Surrey raised eyebrows here at our Warrington HQ.
The NHS worker picked my pocket to the tune of £7,033 after successfully predicting that seven matches – at Stoke, Wigan, Fleetwood, Carlisle, Crawley, Crewe, and Leyton Orient – would all end in a draw.
Four of the games ended up goalless, and three others 1-1, which meant he was in the money with his remarkable, once-in-alifetime, permed £24.75p bet.