We get the opinions - and best bets - of the Sky Bet football traders for this season's Champions League.
The Champions League group stage gets started this week with 32 of Europe's top clubs once again battling it out for glory.
Sky Bet have a host of odds available for the Champions League and all groups are covered.
We've got the verdict from Sky Bet's Ivor Davies, Stuart Dallimore and Richard Evison on Europe's top club competition as the action begins again.
Real Madrid are favourites to win the Champions League for the third season in a row. Are you with or against?
Ivor Davies: Real Madrid are obviously the team to beat and winning three Champions League trophies in a row would be some achievement, but they have to first negotiate a tricky group with Dortmund and Tottenham in it. They have struggled against German opposition and in particular Dortmund before. At odds of 4/1 I’d rather pass them over in favour of something else at a bigger price.
Stuart Dallimore: Obviously Los Blancos are difficult to ignore given their performance in the previous two seasons, but they haven’t had the best start to the campaign and while Ronaldo's ban is of course a big factot there, I can ignore them at the prices.
Richard Evison: It is very hard to argue against anyone wanting to back Real Madrid, they have all the pedigree in this tournament and there seems to be no sign of Ronaldo’s goals drying up. Zidane has an amazing record in the tournament and you know that come the latter stages they have the know-how to get through the big ties.
Barcelona, Bayern Munich and PSG are priced up as Real's main dangers. Which of the trio makes most appeal?
ID: I’d be looking to take all of these teams on at the front of the market. If I had a preference for any of them it would be Bayern Munich as they are the solid marker but even with them I feel the lack of competitiveness in the Bundesliga doesn’t do them any favours when the tournament gets serious in the knockout stages. Barcelona look like a team in a transition and are opposed and the fancy prices on PSG have long since gone.
SD: It’s early days but it’s difficult to not be excited by the PSG attack. At the weekend they lined up with a front four of Cavani, Neymar, Mbappe and Draxler. They still have the likes of Di Maria to come into the team too. That forward line could be the best in world football at the moment, and if it all clicks they could win the lot. They’ve been gambled from an opening 25/1 into 6/1 with us due to their big spending this summer so there’s clearly a lot of belief that they can do it from the betting community.
RE: Out of the three I would rather be on PSG. They have splashed the cash to compete in this competition and given the nature of their league they should be able to rest players ahead of any crucial knockout ties in the latter stages. There are too many negative vibes coming from the Nou Camp to be backing Barca, and when you see the lack of depth they have in the squad a couple of injuries would really see them struggle. Bayern look to be an ageing side and it is hard to envisage much improvement from them.
Which of the five Premier League teams has the greatest chance of success?
ID: I think English clubs in general should be a lot more competitive this season. If this was priced up purely on who the managers of the teams were then England would have five of the first six in the betting. Neither of the Manchester clubs should be dismissed lightly but slight preference is for United, and they should be backed at around the 12/1 mark. The Red Devils are looking strong, powerful and more like a Mourinho team this time around. They have strength in depth and have a manager who has that knack of winning European trophies.
SD: Manchester City boast nearly as much attacking talent as the previously-mentioned PSG, but it’s difficult to not be concerned by their defence, which looks a lot weaker when Kompany isn’t playing. I wouldn’t want to be having a bet that was overly reliant on him remaining fit. I couldn’t fancy any of the others apart from perhaps Chelsea. Conte was tactically excellent last season in leading them to the Premier League title, and for all the negativity surrounding the failures to sign Barkley, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lukaku and Llorente, they’ve still bought quite well in Morata, Rudiger and Bakayoko. They do have a tough group to emerge from initially though. Ultimately I think we’ll see another season of English teams failing in the Champions League, but we should at least see United and Liverpool progress out of their very fortunate group draws.
RE: I hate to say it but I find it hard to see any of the English clubs really challenging. Just given the competitive nature of the Premier League and the schedule the players are forced into, not least four games in 10 days over Christmas when the rest of Europe are having their winter breaks, puts our clubs at a huge disadvantage. The only way I can see any of our sides challenging is if any end up like Manchester United did last year and can put all their eggs in the Champions League basket having fallen out of the Premier League picture.
Where else is the value in the outright market?
ID: Napoli have gone under the radar and look progressive. They have an underrated manager in Maurizio Sarri and boast an attacking array of talent with the likes of Mertens, Insigne, Hamsic and Milik. At the back they don’t concede too many either and if they can negotiate a tricky group with Manchester City and Shakhtar Donetsk in it they could be the dark horses in the competition. Juventus should also go well again but you just feel that maybe last year needed to be their year and they just fell at the final fence.
SD: Given that I don’t fancy any of the English teams, the money has already been gambled on PSG and Barcelona look like a team in transition, I like the look of Juventus at double figures. Dybala has started the season in great form and looks like he’s improving every year. The obvious negative is the loss of Bonucci but Rugani has been highly rated for a long time and should be more than capable of stepping up. I’d rather be with them than against them at the price. I think they stand a very good chance of winning their group, too.
RE: I really like the look of Napoli at 25/1. The Italian side are full of attacking threat with the likes of Hamsic, Milik and Mertens. If they can keep solid at the back I can see them going deep into the tournament.
Celtic are up against it in Group B. Is there any way to side with them?
ID: Very much so – they will probably go off at much bigger prices than they ought to at home. They aren’t in the habit of losing games and have shown in the past in this competition that they can beat anybody at Parkhead. It’s obviously a tough group though with two of the first three in betting in PSG and Bayern, but Celtic will at least want to be competitive and pip Anderlecht to third.
SD: The only bet I could entertain on Celtic would be for them to finish bottom of the group, but you wouldn’t be getting much of a price. They’re currently joint favourites with Anderlecht for this market with us. The best they could hope for would be to finish third and make it into the Europa League - they’re an even money shot for this.
RE: The one thing Celtic have in this tournament is a massive home advantage and they normally spring at least one surprise result at home. Personally I would back them to finish third in the group above Anderlecht, who I believe are significantly weaker than last season. You can back the Bhoys at evens to be playing Europa League football in early 2018.
Who rates the best bet in the top goalscorer market?
ID: Ronaldo and Messi have shared this award between themselves for the past decade - Kaka in 2007 was the last player other than these two to win the award on his own outright. Mertens scored 28 goals last season for Napoli and would be the tentative each-way play for me in this market at 50/1, but you'd have to expect one of the two best players in the world to come out on top.
SD: The Sevilla/Liverpool group has two very weak teams making up the rest of it. I’d be looking to pick a striker for one of those two sides and hoping they filled their boots in the group stages. With that in mind the 100/1 about Ben Yedder looks a cracking each-way bet at almost double the price of any Liverpool player.
RE: It is hard to argue against Ronaldo or Messi given their past records. Given a choice of the two at the moment you would have to plump for Roanldo given the likelihood Real go further in the tournament. At a bigger price I would go for Cavani – the Uruguay frontman has not given up penalty duty despite the arrival of Neymar and Mbappe and is still PSG’s biggest goal threat.
What's your top selection for the group stage?
ID: Porto to win Group G. It's a competitive group with not much between the teams but I rate Porto as the best of them, closely followed by Leipzig. Monaco are a lot weaker than they were last year so I'm happy to take them on. Group D looks a straight shootout between Barcelona and Juventus, the latter doing a job on Barca in the quarter-finals last season. With that in mind I’d rather back Juventus at odds-against rather than this evolving Barcelona side at odds-on.
SD: Monaco have seen several of their star players taken from them this summer, but remain favourites for their group. I’d be very keen to oppose them with the Porto/Leipzig dual forecast.
RE: I would go for Atletico Madrid to win Group C at 11/8. Diego Simone’s side have all the experience of grinding through to the latter stages. I fancy them to get the better of Chelsea in a competition where Conte has struggled in the past and I don’t think Roma will be any great shakes this year - they are a team in transition.
Can you give us a selection for the first round of fixtures this week?
ID: There are two teams that appear overpriced on matchday one: Celtic to beat PSG and RB Leipzig to see off Monaco.
SD: I think the Juventus price looks very fair and could see them causing an upset at Camp Nou.
RE: At the risk of repeating the above I fancy Atletico Madrid to go to the Olympic Stadium in Roma and come away with three points!
Finally, what's your best bet ahead of the Europa League?
SD: All the money has been for Arsenal and AC Milan, but six of the last 16 finalists have been a Spanish team so I’d be looking towards them. It’s always hard to pick in this competition at this stage as it’s a lottery on which teams fall out of the Champions League and into the competition. If I was having a bet at though it would be Real Sociedad. They’ve started the league season very well and look a decent price when you factor in the form of Spanish teams in this competition.
RE: This really is a hard competition to predict and half the battle is guessing who will be taking it seriously and which teams will be dropping out of the Champions League to come into it. I do think this could end up a massive competition for Arsenal as they are likely to struggle to be in the top four in the Premier League. This could be a great way to secure the Gunners a spot back in the Champions League so 7/1 on the North London side looks fair.
