Real Madrid and Barcelona could contest Champions League final
Published:With the competition at the quarter-final stage, there may be some punters yet to place their bet on an outright winner of this year’s Champions League.
But with three of the eight remaining teams in the competition hailing from Spain, an interesting statistic lends weight to the chances of favourites Barcelona, Real Madrid and Malaga in particular.
On two occasions previously, a trio of clubs from the same nation have competed at the Champions League quarter-final stage, with the representation coming from Spain in 2000, and Italy in 2003.
And on these two occasions, an all-Spanish final first ensued with Real emerging triumphant, before AC Milan overcame Juventus to lift the European Cup.
Therefore, such a trend suggests that two La Liga clubs will contest this year’s Wembley Stadium final, and so it could be worth looking at the Spanish clubs’ records against each other before placing a bet.
11/8 favourites Barcelona have not lost to Malaga in their past 16 matches opposing them, but with Lionel Messi likely to miss the second leg of their tie with PSG, perhaps some will be deterred from investing in the Catalans.
The fact that Malaga have only beaten Real once in 25 attempts will lead to little confidence in Los Boquerones’ 40/1 tournament chances though, so it may be best to instead side with Jose Mourinho’s men at 12/5.
Los Blancos, record nine-time European Cup winners, have had Barca’s number of late, losing only once in the past eight encounters of the pair, meaning they would carry immense confidence into the clash were the sides to meet in England.
And with Mourinho bidding to become the first manager to win the competition with clubs from three different countries, his determination to achieve that personal accolade could spur Real on to glory.
In what would be a repetition of circumstances from when the Santiago Bernabeu outfit were crowned European champions in 2000, it seems very plausible that Real emerge victorious from an all-Spanish final this year.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
