Champions League final betting tips: English rivals the final hurdle for City
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Preview and odds for Manchester City v Chelsea
Manchester City look to have finally got it right in Europe’s premier club competition and are now one victory away from winning the Champions League for the first time.
This is the one major piece of silverware City are yet to win since Pep Guardiola took over but to get their hands on the continental crown they must beat domestic rivals Chelsea, who knocked them out of the FA Cup and also won the recent league meeting.
Saturday’s match in Porto is live on BT Sport and kicks off at 8pm as we highlight a few potential Champions League final betting tips.
Champions League final match odds
City have undoubtedly been the best team in England this season and finished 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League so are the overwhelming favourites to win the Champions League final at 4/9 while they are 20/23 to win in 90 minutes.
Chelsea finished 19 points behind City in fourth and only guaranteed their place in next season’s Champions League thanks to Leicester losing at home to Tottenham on the final day.
That has at least eased some of the pressure on Chelsea to win in Portugal but the main aim is to be crowned champions of Europe for the second time.
They have been much improved under Thomas Tuchel and were particularly impressive in the semi-final against Real Madrid, when they were perhaps unfortunate to be held to a 1-1 draw in Spain before winning the second leg 2-0.
Chelsea are 9/5 to lift the trophy and 17/5 to win in normal time, with a low-scoring game looking their best chance.
Their defensive strength has been the biggest improvement during Tuchel’s time in charge and under 2.5 goals has paid out in all their matches in the knockout stage.
Champions League final head-to-head
This is the fourth meeting between these teams this year and Chelsea have had the upper hand so far, winning the two most recent.
Frank Lampard was still in charge of Chelsea when City won 3-1 at Stamford Bridge in January but City’s hopes of winning four trophies this season were ended when they lost 1-0 to Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final last month, with Hakim Ziyech scoring the second-half winner.
Guardiola left out several of his star players for the recent Premier League meeting which had been billed as a dress rehearsal for the Champions League final.
City went ahead through Raheem Sterling just before half-time but Chelsea came from behind for a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Ziyech and Marcos Alonso.
Previous Champions League XI
Chelsea: Mendy, Rudiger, Christensen, Silva, Chilwell, Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kante, Mount, Havertz, Werner.
Key battles
City showed against Neymar and PSG’s other renowned individual talents that the sum is greater than their parts in the semi-finals and this unity will be a decisive factor in the final.
Sergio Aguero’s fitness problems mean they have operated with a ‘false nine’ for much of the season and the goals have been shared around but Kevin De Bruyne remains their most influential player.
City struggled to create chances in the FA Cup semi-final, though, when they were stifled by N’Golo Kante and Jorginho, with the midfield battle likely to determine who comes out on top.
Chelsea will need to be clinical if they are to cause an upset and this would be the perfect time for Timo Werner to step up, with the German having struggled in his first season at the London club.
Werner is 17/2 to open the scoring while Aguero is 4/1 to score the last goal in his final match for City.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
