The UEFA Champions League Finals take place this Saturday May 24th in Lisbon, Portugal. It’s a funny match up because not only are two teams from the La Liga in Spain battling each other for the title, but both teams actually come from the exact same city. Madrid, Spain has already guaranteed themselves the biggest prize in club football, all that’s left to be decided is which Madrid team will be crowned. Real Madrid is the favourite heading into the match even though Atletico Madrid were crowned the La Liga Champions this year by finishing 3 points ahead of both Real Madrid and Barcelona.
The reason Real Madrid is the favourite heading in may be because they had a much more difficult road to the finals than Atletico. Real Madrid stunned the tournament favourites Bayern Munich over two legs in the semi-finals and also beat another top German team Borussia Dortmund in the quarterfinals. Atletico had the easier challenge of Chelsea in the semi-finals, but they did pull off some significant victories over both Barcelona and AC Milan.
Since their last Champions League match at the end of April, Real Madrid has gone 1-1-2 with a big loss to Celta that hurt their chances of being crowned champions of La Liga. The form isn’t the best for Real Madrid, but they have risen to the occasion in Champions League matches this year and are expected to do the same in Lisbon. This would be the 10th Champions League title for Real Madrid, while Atletico has yet to win one the European stage. Atletico Madrid have also not been great since defeating Chelsea, losing their next domestic match and then drawing their most recent two. But the last draw against Barcelona was crucial for them to become La Liga champs so it was a high pressure game against a very strong opponent on the road.
This is the biggest club football match of the year so there are almost endless betting opportunities. Let’s look at a few. I’m using odds from BetOnline.ag.
To Win Outright (Lift Trophy)
- Real Madrid -220
- Atletico Madrid +180
As you can see Real Madrid are fairly big favourites in this game. I think the smart money has to be on Atletico. They haven’t lost a single Champions League match yet this tournament and they are coming off a big La Liga title. I really think this game could go either way so the +180 looks pretty good to me.
1X2 Odds
- Real Madrid -108
- Atletico Madrid +300
- Draw +230
In the classic soccer odds, with the game being declared a draw after regulation time, Real Madrid is still expected to win early. Once again I like Atletico at +300 in this bet. They have shown the ability to score throughout the tournament and could just as easily find the back of the net as Real Madrid.
The odds above were using BetOnline.ag.
Tagged With : Atletico Madrid • Champions League • Promotion • Real Madrid