It’s that time of year again. The theme song blares out of stadium speakers, Gary Neville clears his throat for more mind-boggling goal-gasms and 32 of the best teams in Europe prepare for battle. This year’s Champions League promises to be as exciting as ever with both Barcelona and Real Madrid looking favourites to compete the final at Wembley next May. Before the competition kicks-off on Tuesday evening take a look at this brief group by group analysis of the bets with best value and those big teams that may be worth betting against.
Group A
Carlo Ancelotti’s Paris St. Germain are clear favourites for this group at 2.04 and could offer decent value at that price. Porto look very short odds to qualify at 1.43 and tough away games to Kiev and Zagreb could allow one of the Eastern sides to make it through – Dinamo Kiev look good at 2.6 to qualify with the promising Andriy Yarmolenko leading the line.
Summary: Dinamo Kiev to qualify = 2.6
Group B
Group B should offer a fairly easy route through for London club Arsenal (1.21 to qualify) who have made a promising start in the Premier League this season. Runners up place should be claimed by German club Schalke and their odds of 1.65 to qualify clearly reflect this. French champions Montpellier have had a very tame start to this year’s Ligue 1 and look unlikely to trouble the top of this group.
Summary: Arsenal to qualify = 1.21
Group C
Group C offers up a real tough choice with 3 really strong teams comprised of AC Milan, Zenit St. Petersburg and Malaga. After a promising start to the La Liga season Malaga look really good at 2.22 to qualify especially with their experienced squad. On paper, Zenit look very strong this season with the expensive acquisitions of Axel Witsel and Hulk so favourites for the group AC Milan could be layable at 1.3 to qualify as one of this season’s surprise upsets.
Summary: (NAP) Malaga to qualify = 2.22
Group D
This year’s proclaimed ‘Group of Death’ is by definition tough to predict. After a disappointing campaign last time round Manchester City will really be looking to focus their efforts on qualifying from the group stage this year (1.56) but will face stern tests against Real Madrid, Dortmund and Ajax. However, it is impossible to look past Jose Mourinho’s Madrid to win the group at 1.7, with Dortmund just missing out on the top two (2.62 to qualify).
Summary: Real Madrid to win group = 1.7
Group E
Defending champions Chelsea will have to perform a miracle to emulate last season’s triumph but do look strong contenders here to top the group at odds of 2.08 with the likes of new boy Eden Hazard looking to make an impact after his big-money move in the summer. Italian champions Juventus will be Chelsea’s biggest threat to top the group (2.4). Shakhtar Donetsk could be a real outside chance here, the Ukrainian club have started the league season in dazzling form winning 9 out of 9 and scoring 32 goals so far, with the 60,000 seater Don Bass Arena offering a really tough away fixture for their opponents – odds of 2.9 to qualify could be worth a punt.
Summary: (NB) Shakhtar to qualify = 2.9
Group F
Group F sees last year’s runners-up Bayern Munich (1.47) as clear favourites and should be too strong for the likes of Valencia (3.95) and a much-depleted Lille (9). A good bet in this group could well be the straight forecast Bayern Munich/Valencia at 1.7 although even that price is not particularly enticing.
Summary: Straight forecast Bayern Munich/Valencia = 1.7
Group G
Barcelona are the obvious choice in this group, the Catalan giants have been one of the most prolific teams in world football, winning 3 of the last 6 Champions League titles. New manager Tito Vilanova will be looking to get off to a convincing start in this competition and new signings Jordi Alba and Alex Song can only have helped to bolster the squad. Benfica also look well placed to qualify from this group at 1.59 as Spartak Moscow and Celtic have made very average starts to their respective league seasons.
Summary: Benfica to qualify = 1.59
Group H
Manchester United, strengthened by the signing of the talismanic Robin Van Persie will be hard to beat in Group H and are favourites to top the table at 1.28 although last year’s surprise exit may offer some hope for Galatasaray at 8 and Braga at 7.6 to win the group. A better option may be to back Galatasaray to qualify at 2.02, having started with some promising results in the Turkish league and with some experienced players in their squad. Note that their odds are likely to lengthen after their first game away to Manchester United so could be a good option to back after that fixture.
Summary: Galatasaray to qualify = 2.02
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