Champions League Odds | Betting Comparison
Who are the favourites to win the 2020-21 Champions League?
The Champions League is a competition where the best of the best in Europe fight to win arguably the most prized trophy in football. The competition starts in the early stages with qualifiers containing teams from obscure countries such as PAOK or Midtjylland. There are 4 stages of qualifying rounds: the preliminary round, first qualifying round, second qualifying round and the third qualifying round. Winning the 3rd qualifying round puts you through to the Play-off round where you have a 2-legged affair with another team and if you win you progress to the Champions League Group Stage.
The Group Stage contains 32 teams with 8 different groups and the top 2 teams from each group qualify for the last 16 of the competition, however, the team in 3rd place goes into the last 32 of the Europa League and the team in 4th place is kicked out of any European Competition full stop. The last 16 of the competition is a knockout stage played over 2 legs: one at home and one away. The winner then progresses to the quarter final, the semi final and then the final. However, in the final, there is only one leg played, in neutral territory.
Currently the team who has won the competition the most times is Real Madrid (13 times), second is AC Milan (7 times) and the 3rd most times is both Bayern Munich and Liverpool (6 times).
In the most recent season, Bayern Munich won the competition, making them the current holders. They won every single game they played in the competition, not once drawing, or losing and their star striker Robert Lewandowski, aged 32, won the golden boot after scoring 15 goals. They are instantly at the top of the odds as favourites to win and retain their Champions League title after their free-flowing attacking football last season. Since Flick took charge of Bayern last November, they have won 32 games, drawn 1 and lost 2. For next season, they have acquired Manchester City winger Leroy Sane, formerly of Schalke. He is a world class talent full of pace, trickery, and he is a very direct dribbler. Unfortunately, he missed last season with City due to a bad ligament injury, which hindered his development, but at just 24 years of age he has bags of potential for the future.
Liverpool, after winning the competition in 2019, had a bitterly disappointing Champions League campaign after failing to overcome Simeone’s ruthless Atletico Madrid, mainly because of there hungry desire to secure their first Premier League title. Next season, they could well be a contender, with on some pages having odds of 8/1, but many feel, including me, that they most definitely need to strengthen in some areas to retain their Premier League title and push for the Champions League once more. They are remarkably close to completing a deal with Bayern Munich’s midfield maestro, Thiago Alcantara, who would be a great addition to Liverpool’s dynamic team. He has the ability to play as a holding midfielder (a no.6), a box-to-box midfielder and even on occasions as a no. 10 with his desire to create chances.
An underdog to keep a close eye on for this upcoming year could be English Premier League team Chelsea. With already completing the signings of former Leipzig striker Timo Werner and former Ajax playmaker and winger Hakim Ziyech. Last season, Werner scored 35 goals in 48 appearances and whilst it could be a big step up to Chelsea, there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that he will not impress upfront. They are also being heavily linked with one of the worlds hottest prospects Kai Havertz a centre forward/ playmaker for Bayer Leverkusen, attacking full-back Ben Chilwell who plays for Leicester City and Veteran Centre-half Thiago Silva. These two new potentials defensive signings could be huge for Chelsea as their failure to succeed in all the competitions they played in last season, was hugely down to defensive blunders.