Celtic 0-0 AC Milan
Lille 0-1 Man Utd
PSV 1-0 Arsenal
Real Madrid 3-2 Bayern Munich
Barcelona 1-2 Liverpool
FC Porto 1-1 Chelsea
Inter Milan 2-2 Valencia
Roma 0-0 Lyon
After a two month break the Champions League was back in the spotlight as the final phase first round knockout stage got underway at the end of February.
Before the round of matches the bookmakers found it hard to split Chelsea and current champions Barcelona at around 7/2 as favourites in the outright betting, but all that changed come Thursday morning.
Barcelona slumped to a shock 2-1 home defeat to 2005 winners Liverpool and with two away goals The Reds will be confident of doing the necessary to progress at Anfield in two weeks.
Due to this result the layers pushed the Spanish giants out to around 12/1 from 7/2, while Liverpool have more than halved in price coming in from 28/1 to stand at around 10/1.
That result obviously sent shockwaves across Europe, with all the remaining teams now licking their lips with the prospect of the champions on the brink of being dumped out of the competition.
Man Utd were also shortened in the betting after their controversial 1-0 over Lille and are now around the 6/1 mark from 8/1, while because of Barca’s demise and gaining a decent 1-1 draw over in Porto, Chelsea are now the clear favourites to go all the way at around 7/2.
Of the others Lyon look the most improved side in this year’s event and are still to taste defeat. They hold every chance of getting by Roma after they drew 0-0 in Rome and are currently third favourites at around 8/1.
The high scoring game of the first legs saw Real Madrid beat Bayern Munich 3-2, but with two away goals this tie is by no means over yet. Madrid however still have a big looking price against them at around 16/1, while Munich are as big as 25/1.
Arsenal, despite having to come back from 1-0 down, will fancy their chances of still making it through with the next leg at the Emirates and are backable at around 14/1 to go one better than last year’s final defeat.
But with no more than one goal separating each game, the 2nd leg games the 6th and 7th of March are nicely poised with all 16 surely still believing that they will make the last eight.
* All prices correct at time of writing.
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