Weekend Review: Bookies cherish Chelsea’s Champions League glory
Thomas Tuchel’s men secure unexpected victory in Portugal as racing favourites emerge for Epsom
Chelsea’s Champions League victory left the bookies beaming over the weekend as the Blues secured club football’s biggest trophy for the first time since 2012.
In the all-English final hosted in Porto’s Estádio do Dragão, Chelsea (7/2) ousted Premier League rivals Manchester City (10/11) 1-0, thanks to a well-taken finish by Kai Havertz in the 42nd minute.
The result meant Thomas Tuchel secured his third successive victory over Pep Guardiola as Chelsea boss, and his first major European trophy as a manager. It was also his second Champions League final in as many seasons after losing out to Bayern Munich with PSG last year.
CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE!!! 🏆 #ChelseaChampions #UCLFinal pic.twitter.com/Wz000kegmG
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 29, 2021
Kindred Group’s Ali Gill said: “The Champions League final was a great result for layers, as the big one continues to allude Manchester City, who were odds-on on the night. The BTTS and Overs goals not coming in either meant punters weren’t left with much to cheers about.
“Chelsea were also fairly unfancied in the early outright betting so the final outright betting book finished with a healthy margin as well,” he added.
Ladbrokes’ Alex Apati commented: “Ended up being a great result for us as City were one of the most popular picks this season in the outright betting to win the UCL, and were just as popular in the match betting on the night.
“Plenty of interest in BTTS/Over 2.5 Goals and a City win, so the fact Pep opted to start without a striker certainly helped us out, while not many backed Havertz to open the scoring,” he added.
Elsewhere, Apati told EGR how low-scoring play-off finals across the EFL provided a positive result for the bookie.
🎶 Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Brentford 🎶#BrentfordFC #BeeTogether 🐝 pic.twitter.com/TtwGeW5Ufo
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) May 31, 2021
He said: “Just one of the EFL play-off finals saw both teams score, while yesterday’s game going to extra time saved us on the Brentford, Blackpool and Morecambe 90-min treble.”
Betfred’s Alan Firkins revealed Premier League new boys Brentford find themselves 1,000/1 to become Premier League champions next season after goals from Ivan Toney and Emiliano Marcondes fired them into the top-flight for the first time since the 1930s.
Firkins went on to detail which runners are shaping up to be the favourites ahead of this year’s Epsom Derby.
He said: “All eyes are now firmly trained upon Epsom. Bolshoi Ballet is a very warm order at around 13/8 for Derby glory, while another of Aidan O’Brien’s, Santa Barbara, heads the Oaks betting at 9/4. Lots of interest around who will partner some of Aidan’s, who will be firing lots of arrows at the targets, as per.”
The Oaks takes place this Friday while the biggest race of the British flat season, the Derby, is the following day. There are currently 19 runners for the famous Classic ahead of the 48-hour declarations this Thursday.