Bayern and Dortmund poised for Champions league assault
Published:It may have been a thoroughly disappointing season for some of the English teams in the Champions League (we’re looking at you Manchester City and Chelsea) but for German football, things couldn’t be much better.
Both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund qualified for the knockout stages as group winners and continue to look like the sides to back outside of the Spanish giants.
Bayern – last year’s losing finalists – have not won the tournament since 2001 but their ability to consistently make it to the latter stages of the tournament means they’re always worth consideration in the betting stakes.
They are currently the 7/1 third favourites and, having dispatched BATE 4-1 in their final group game (not to mention the fact they’ve made the final in two of the past three seasons) they look a tasty bet.
Meanwhile, Dortmund finished top of the ‘Group of Death’ (there has to be one each year) and made it through games against Real Madrid, Ajax and Manchester City without losing once.
They’re slightly longer than Bayern at 8/1 but the way they negotiated their group provides plenty of evidence of their potential to win the tournament.
The betting is, of course, headed by Spanish sides Barcelona and Real Madrid though.
The Catalan side remain the favourites at 5/2 despite a pretty underwhelming campaign so far that saw them lose away to Celtic and fail to find the net against Benfica in their final group game (although the side that lined up against the Portuguese side was far from their best).
They’ve been imperious in La Liga this term but there is a sense that, in Europe at least, they’re not capable of the level of dominance they enjoyed a few seasons ago, making Real Madrid the better value punt of the Spanish sides at 3/1.
Finally, Manchester United are out at 17/2 to bag the third Champions League title of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Old Trafford reign.
All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date
