The Champion’s League Final
Manchester United have already been crowned Champions of England and tonight they will try to become Champions of Europe when they meet Chelsea in the Champions League Final in Moscow.
Chelsea ran United close in the Premier League and ran out 2-1 winners when both teams met at Stamford Bridge recently and will come to Moscow determined to show they can be a match for United.
This is a one-off match taking place in unique circumstances and so it’s better to ignore any previous head to head meetings in the league between the sides as that form will be likely to have little bearing on the result here. It may be better to concentrate on what both sides can offer in terms of being able to go out and win the game tonight.
Both sides are in good form and Manchester United will definitely be buoyed by winning the Premiership title on the final day. Bookmakers have United as slight favourites at 6/4 (Coral) and given their record in Europe this year it’s easy to see why.
United are unbeaten so far in the competition and have scored 19 goals in the champions League so far, but it’s United’s defensive record that stands out having only conceded five goals in their 12 matches and not conceded any in their last five Champions League games.. Chelsea’s record is very similar, losing only once and conceded two goals more. So there isn’t a whole lot between the two sides and the 21/10 (Bodog) on offer for a Chelsea win reflects this. It’s normally difficult enough to predict the winner of this game in the Premier League, never mind a Champions League Final, so it may pay to look at other available bets rather than the win market.
With these two teams having great defences it would seem the Under 2.5 goals 1/2 (Skybet) would be worth getting on. But it’s interesting to note that three of the last six Champions League Finals have ended in a 2-1 scoreline and we think the 6/4 (VCbet) on over 2.5 goals is a better bet.
Match Winners
Both teams have players capable of winning the match and Ronaldo at 6/1 (Betfair) to be the first goalscore will have plenty of supporters. as will Rooney 15/2 (Coral) and Drogba 7/1(Ladbrokes). We’ve noted that Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack have only played together 15 times this season and in those 15 games have scored 10 goals between them.
At odds of 10/1(Partybets) to score the first goal Frank Lampard looks good value and at even bigger odds of 14/1 (Bet365) Michael Ballack is the player we’re going to have a wager on to score the first goal.
Ballack is also worth backing to score anytime at 5/1 (Paddypower) as he has popped up with important goals for Chelsea already this season.
Prediction
This really is a hard one to call, but we’re going with United to win 2-1 9/1 (Ladbrokes) but they may have to come from behind as we think Ballack 14/1 (Bet365) will score the first goal.
Who will score United’s winner? Well we’re going to have a bet on Ryan Giggs to score the last goal at odds of 20/1 (Coral) to round off what would be a fitting night for a player breaking the Manchester United appearance record.