The bookies' favourites to win the Champions League may surprise you | OneFootball

You’d think winning the last three Champions Leagues on the bounce would be enough to make Real Madrid the favourites to lift old big ears again this season.

But you’d be wrong.

Europe’s premier club competition gets under way again on Tuesday evening, and the group stage draw has thrown up some potentially fascinating clashes.

How will Paris Saint-Germain cope on an electric European night at Anfield? Will Cristiano Ronaldo score on his return to Old Trafford? And who will prevail in that Group of Death containing Barcelona, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund?

These are all questions we will have to wait a little while to find out the answers to, but perhaps the most burning question is one the bookmakers think they can answer right here, right now.

Who will win the Champions League?

They say you never see a broke bookie and when it comes to football forecasting, they get it right more often than not.

Last season, Real Madrid were priced at 4/1 favourites to win the Champions League and as we all know, that’s exactly what they went on to do.

But this year, it’s the bookies who have taken a pretty big gamble with their prediction.

The favourite to win the 2018/19 Champions League is not Madrid, or Barcelona, or Juventus, or PSG. It’s Manchester City.

That’s right, despite the fact they’ve never won the European Cup or even made it to the final before, Pep Guardiola’s Premier League champions are 9/2 favourites to win European club football’s biggest prize.

Pretty crazy, huh?

Second on the list are Barcelona at 6/1, followed by Juventus at 13/2 and then PSG at 7/1.

Holders Real Madrid are priced at 8/1 to make it four Champions Leagues in a row, while 2013 winners Bayern Munich are an attractively priced 10/1.

Elsewhere, last year’s finalists Liverpool are 12/1 – as are Atlético Madrid – while interestingly, the bookies reckon Spurs (20/1) have a better chance of winning the Champions League than Manchester United (28/1).

But when you think about it, perhaps there is some logic behind these numbers.

The law of averages dictates that the chances of Real Madrid winning the same cup competition for the fourth time on the spin would be pretty slim even if they hadn’t lost Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane this summer.

Man City, meanwhile, are likely to have learned some lessons from their quarter-final exit at the hands of Liverpool last season and will be expected to approach the Champions League with renewed vigour and a more experienced group of players this season.

PSG still have a bit to prove when it comes to European football, as do Juventus, while Liverpool’s Premier League title tilt may make competing on two fronts a little more difficult for them this year.

If you ask us, Barcelona at 6/1 is perhaps the most attractive bet out there, and we have a strong feeling it could well be their year again.

But remember kids, please gamble responsibly.