Premier League duo now bookies favourites to win Champions League

Manchester City and Chelsea are the bookmakers’ two favourites to win the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League after last week’s quarter-final first legs.

The runaway Premier League leaders were 2-1 winners at home to Borussia Dortmund, albeit relying on a 90^th minute winner from Phil Foden. Dortmund unfairly saw Judge Bellingham’s first half equaliser disallowed by the referee, who blew his whistle immediately, preventing VAR from overturning his decision.

Pep Guardiola’s side rode their luck in that sense but ran out deserved 2-1 winners. The Citizens may be grateful for no fans at Signal Iduna Park, given the atmosphere the yellow wall creates and their 70,000 fans in general.

City’s odds have dropped to just 7/4 with most bookmakers and casinos online to lift the trophy after the results from the first legs. They had previously been joint favourites with defending champions Bayern Munich.

However, the Bundesliga giants suffered a surprise 2-3 loss at home to Paris Saint-Germain in their first leg and have it all to do at the Parc des Princes this week. What’s more, star striker Robert Lewandowski is expected to remain sidelined through injury.

Bayern should certainly not be ruled out of overturning the first leg defeat, given how great they have been for the past 12 months or so under Hansi Flick. PSG themselves have also bottled a number of knockout ties in recent seasons. One of them being last year’s final versus the Bavarians where the front three simply didn’t show up. The winner of this tie is set to face either Manchester City or Borussia Dortmund in the semi-final.

On the other side of the draw, Chelsea saw their odds slashed to 4/1 second favourites following their 2-0 win in their away leg to FC Porto in the first leg of their quarter-final. Both games are actually being played at Sevilla’s Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.

The Blues have been flying since the appointment of Thomas Tuchel, suffering just one Premier League defeat and upsetting Atletico Madrid in the previous round. Holding a 2-0 lead ahead of the second leg, Chelsea are firm favoruites to progress to the last-4. You’d be better off gambling on the best casino games – or meilleur jeu casino as the French say – than betting on Porto to win this tie. Provided no slip ups in the second leg, Chelsea will face the winner of Real Madrid and Liverpool in the semi-finals.

Jurgen Klopp’s side had been favourites to reach the final four but were beaten 3-1 in their first leg in the Spanish capital. They have it all to do at Anfield this week, but they do have a few things going in their favour for them.

Real Madrid were involved in a close and tough El Clasico on Saturday night. Although they were 2-1 victors over rivals Barcelona it will have taken a lot of energy out of the players. Many will have started three games in the space of eight days by the time the second leg comes around.

The Spanish giants will have had little time to rest and prepare before flying to Merseyside and are already without their first-choice centre-back pairing of Sergio Ramos and Raphael Varane. Replacements Nacho and Eder Militao rode a lot of luck in beating Barcelona over the weekend.

That should come as good news for the likes of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Diogo Jota, who will be looking to overturn a two-goal deficit to set up a potential all-English semi-final.