City and United cut for Champions League glory

Manchester rivals City and United have been cut for Champions League success after being handed comfortable-looking assignments in a Champions League draw that pitched several of the big guns together.

United face Benfica, Basel and CSKA Moscow in Group A and have been trimmed from 14-1 to 11-1 to lift the trophy while City are 4-7 to top Group F where their opponents are Shakhtar Donetsk, Napoli and Feyenoord.

Liverpool will also be happy with their draw as they face Spartak Moscow, Sevilla and Slovenian minnows Maribor, while Chelsea are housed in Group C alongside Atletico Madrid and Roma, who both boast strong European pedigrees, and Azerbaijan outfit Qarabag.

Coral go 4-5 that four of the five Premier League teams progress to the knockout stage but it's 2-1 about a full house as Tottenham, who failed to make it out of the group stage last season, face one of the toughest sections. They come up against holders and favourites Real Madrid, as well as Borussia Dortmund and Apoel.

And there's an equally onerous task facing Celtic as the Scottish champions must take on Bayern Munich and Paris St-Germain, second- and fourth-favourites in the outright betting.

Two more giants are paired in Group D where Juventus and Barcelona, who met in the 2015 final, go head to head and both have been eased in the outright betting.

Coral make City and United their 9-4 favourites to progress furthest in the tournament, while an English winner is 9-4.

Coral - Premier League team to progress furthest: 9-4 Man City, Man Utd, 3 Chelsea, 11-2 Liverpool, 8 Tottenham; how many English clubs will make the knockout stage? 4-5 four, 2 five, 3 three, 20 two, 100 one, 500 none.