Champions League winner odds and outright predictions: Liverpool look the value

Free football tips, best outright bets and analysis for the 2021-22 Champions League, which resumes on Tuesday, February 15.

Best bet

Liverpool
2pts 11-2 Paddy Power

Already advised

Bayern Munich
2pts 8-1 Hills

Atletico Madrid
1pt 25-1Betfred, BoyleSports

Champions League outright preview

Liverpool have been by far the most successful English team in Champions League history and have every chance of getting their hands on the trophy for a seventh time in Saint Petersburg on May 28.

Two of the last three Champions League finals have been all-English affairs and the Premier League challenge looks strong again with Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea first, third and fourth in the betting.

Liverpool were one of three teams to win all six games in the group stage.

The others were Bayern Munich and Ajax, who have shortened to 4-1 and 14-1 in the betting, having started the tournament at 8-1 and 125-1.

Bayern have an obvious chance but the better value lies with Liverpool, who have added talented attacker Luis Diaz in January and look ideally set up to flourish on difficult Champions League nights.

The Reds were drawn in a testing group, alongside Atletico Madrid, Porto and Milan but handled it superbly and had first place wrapped up with two games to spare.

Jurgen Klopp's side are chasing Manchester City in the title race but the Champions League looks a high priority for them, and while their round-of-16 tie against Inter is a tougher than they might have wanted, it should not be too much of a problem for a team of their quality and experience.

Liverpool had to rely more on their defensive strength while Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane were at the Africa Cup of Nations but the duo still have massive roles to play over the rest of the season.

Klopp's team may have to face an English rival at some point and will be particularly wary of City, who are unbeaten in the last four matches between the teams.

City deservedly won Group A although the aggregate score from their matches against Paris St-Germain was 3-2 to the French outfit despite a combined shot count of 34 to 13 in favour of Pep Guardiola's side.

Failing to sign a centre-forward appears not to have mattered in the Premier League, where general consistency is key, but a clinical centre-forward can often make the difference in matches between high-level opponents when margins are at their finest.

Chelsea tried to solve their perceived centre-forward weakness by adding Romelo Lukaku to the group which won the Champions League last season.

However, after a bright start Lukaku's performances have dipped and the Belgian's public comments in an interview with Sky Italia only added to the perception that his return to Stamford Bridge had been a less than happy one.

Nonetheless the Blues are still a major threat, with or without a fully engaged Lukaku, and would fully expect to come through their round-of-16 tie with Lille.

Manchester United are rated by far the least likely winners among the English contingent and are far from certain to come through their round-of-16 tie with Atletico Madrid.

Cristiano Ronaldo has lifted their performances on European nights, scoring six goals in the group stage, but United have looked out of their depth in the biggest Premier League games, losing at home to Liverpool and Manchester City, and it is doubtful whether they could cope against the elite Champions League teams.

Bayern look the strongest contenders from the continent and would fancy their chances against anyone.

They have retained eight of the players who started their 1-0 success over PSG in the 2020 Champions League final, although starting centre-backs Jerome Boateng and David Alaba have moved on and Manuel Neuer has just undergone knee surgery.

The Bavarians have not always looked watertight in the Bundesliga and they need to be rock-solid if they are to cope against teams who are equally as talented in attack.

Spanish teams have hoovered up a record 18 European Cup and Champions League titles but La Liga giants Real Madrid and Barcelona have had a tough couple of years and Barca's involvement ended at the group stage after they finishing below Sporting Lisbon.

Real were semi-finalists last season and lead the way in La Liga after responding well to Carlo Ancelotti.

However, they have landed a tough round-of-16 draw against PSG and are outsiders to go through.

PSG will have their backers at 10-1 due to the match-winning potential of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi, but a better each-way option could be Ajax, who plundered 20 goals in a faultless group-stage campaign.

Ajax are undoubtedly talented and should come through their round-of-16 tie against Benfica. But they failed to keep a clean sheet in their last three group-stage fixtures and any defensive weakness could be exposed by top-level teams.

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