Champions League Winner Odds: Knockout stages begin with Chelsea and Barcelona disputing favouritism

Champions League / Joe Dyer / 09 December 2009 / Leave a Comment

Drogba's form has powered Chelsea to favouritism in the Champions League betting

"Liverpool have already crashed out of the Champions League but their fans will not have been overjoyed at another Anfield defeat as Fiorentina came back from a goal down to pull off a Group E-winning victory."

English and Spanish teams dominate the front of the betting as the last 16 are decided

Chelsea and Barcelona go into the knockout stages as the joint-favourites for Champions League glory at [4.8] on Betfair.

Behind them are the latest Galacticos of Real Madrid ([7.4]) and last year's finalists Manchester United ([10.0]).

Arsenal, whose young team were beaten at Olympiakos tonight, and Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan seem to be the last two with a genuine chance of victory at odds of [10.5] and [13.0] respectively.

In truth, the final night of group action was low on drama with most teams aware of their fates, though there were still some results to raise the eyebrows.

Liverpool have already crashed out of the Champions League but their fans will not have been overjoyed at another Anfield defeat as Fiorentina came back from a goal down to pull off a Group E-winning victory.

That rewarded bettors who kept faith in the Italians and backed them at a high of [7.4] to do the job. Lyon were the front runners in the market and touched a low of [1.06] when it looked as though Fiorentina would lose on Merseyside.

Liverpool's European adventure now switches to the Europa League where they are the [7.8] favourites to lift the trophy. Lyon and Fiorentina are among the outsiders for Champions League glory at [60.0] and [65.0].

The most dramatic betting story of Wednesday night's Champions League action came at Standard Liege where AZ Alkmaar were seconds away from an away win but conceded at the very death. Punters were willing to back the Dutchmen at [1.01] on Betfair. Ouch.