CL Best Bets – Final
VegasInsider Staff Sports Betting Expert
UEFA Champions League Final Betting Preview
Tottenham vs. Liverpool
Date: Saturday, June 1, 2019
Venue: Wanda Metropolitano
Location: Madrid, Spain
Time/TV: 3:00 p.m. ET, TNT
This year’s Champions League final is an all-English affair for the first time since Manchester United’s penalty win over Chelsea in 2008, and fans of both clubs have to put up with seeing their bitterest rivals compete for the most prestigious prize in club football. Liverpool, trying for their sixth Champions League title, face Tottenham Hotspur, looking for their first.
Jurgen Klopp has lost all six finals in his career to date, including a Champions League final to Bayern Munich in 2013. But Liverpool look value favourites at 10/11 to win the match in 90 minutes and end Klopp’s trophy drought. Tottenham are 17/5 to win with a draw priced at 13/5. Liverpool are 4/9 to win the trophy while Spurs are 7/4.
Liverpool have lost recent European finals to Sevilla and Real Madrid, but they are in better shape now than they have been since the glory years of the 1980s. The Sevilla defeat in the Europa League came very early in their development under Klopp; for last year’s final against Real the two sides went off 50/50 to win the trophy. Two keeping errors by Loris Karius and a Gareth Bale bicycle kick, all after an early injury to Mohamed Salah, ensured that fate was not on the Reds’ side that night in Kiev.
Tottenham are surely the weakest Champions League finalists since Monaco got to the final in 2004. Yet their path has been stunningly exciting. It has been the kind of run that, like Chelsea’s unlikely victory in 2012, makes the observer wonder if Spurs are destined to win it.
Despite Ajax’s rave reviews in their first leg win at Tottenham, Mauricio Pochettino’s men deserved to go through that tie. However they were extremely lucky to progress against Manchester City. Both ties were won on away goals.Liverpool finished 26 points ahead of Tottenham. Their haul of 97 points was a record for a team that did not win the league. They beat Tottenham home and away. The Reds have experience and pedigree on their side. This is the biggest game in Spurs’s history by far.
Liverpool managed to beat Barcelona 4-0 at Anfield despite the absence of Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah. Klopp is getting extraordinary amounts out of his team, with former lesser lights like Georginio Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson, as well as the two wonderful full-backs, playing the best football of their careers.
Spurs stumbled over the line in their quest to get top four, aided largely by a bounce from playing at their new stadium. They had Harry Kane out for this entire period, and Pochettino will face a dilemma over whether to start his captain and star man in Madrid. He surely will, but Kane might not be fully fit - a regret that he will have to hold for the rest of his life should Spurs lose here.
If Kane is fit, Pochettino has a fully fit squad for one of the first times all season. They will not go down without a fight. The Argentine has installed superb spirit into this team, and accusations that Spurs are bottle-jobs surely cannot survive this remarkable run.
But everything points to a Liverpool win, and possibly a reasonably comfortable one. There was a huge gulf in class between the two this season, and Liverpool have a great recent record over their opponents.
In the first goalscorer stakes, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah finished joint top goalscorers in the Premier League. Salah’s big-game form this season has been off, and you can get Mane at 5/1 to score the game’s first goal, while Salah is just 15/4.
Best Bets
Prediction: Liverpool 3-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Tip: Liverpool to win in 90 minutes at 10/11
First Goalscorer: Sadio Mane at 5/1
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