Manchester City have emerged as the bookies' favourite to win UEFA's top club competition once again as Pep Guardiola looks to go one step further than the club's final appearance back in 2021. City missed out on lifting the European trophy to Premier League rivals Chelsea in Porto as the Blues secured a 1-0 win under Thomas Tuchel.
Bookies Betfred have priced City at 5/2 to win their first Champions League in the club's history and are in pot one for the group stage draw due to take place Thursday afternoon (August 25). They join holders Real Madrid, Europa League champions Eintracht Frankfurt, Serie A winners AC Milan, Bundesliga holders Bayern Munich, Ligue 1's PSG, Portugal's Porto and Eredivisie champions Ajax.
Carlo Ancelotti's Madrid are surprisingly priced at 12/1 to maintain a successful defence of the trophy which has been in Spanish hands in six of the last nine years. La Liga rivals Barcelona, in pot two, are 14/1 with Xavi Hernandez's side keen to do better than dropping out of the group stage to Europe's second-tier competition.
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Pot two features City's Premier League rivals Liverpool ( 6/1 ), Chelsea ( 16/1 ) and Tottenham Hotspur ( 20/1 ) as well as Juventus ( 40/1 ), Atletico Madrid ( 33/1 ), Sevilla ( 66/1 ) and RB Leipzig ( 40/1 ). Liverpool were the finalists last season and Jurgen Klopp will be hoping to go one better again as Reds boss but with the growing list of injuries and the poor start, he might have a tough task on his hands.
Pot three features Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Red Bull Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon. Pot four features Scottish Premiership sides Rangers and Celtic plus Dinamo Zagreb, Marseille, Copenhagen, Club Brugge, Viktoria Plzen and Maccabi Haifa.
Here are the odds from Betfred :
- Man City - 5/2
- PSG - 11/2
- Liverpool - 6/1
- Bayern Munich - 13/2
- Real Madrid - 12/1
- Barcelona - 14/1
- Chelsea - 16/1
- Tottenham - 20/1
- Bar - 33/1
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