Man Utd remain the only English team to have claimed Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League trophies in the same season, but Man City are 9/2 to land the same Treble bet. The Blues won all three major domestic competitions two years ago and will now try to also conquer Europe for the first time.
Chelsea are on a high after reaching the last eight of the Champions League and it would be a major upset if Sheffield United are the ones to end their unbeaten record under Thomas Tuchel. The Blues face an exciting end to the season due to their form since Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard.
Southampton have a welcome distraction from their poor Premier League form when they face south coast neighbours Bournemouth in the FA Cup quarter-finals. Saints have lost 10 of their last 12 league games but should still have too much quality for a Bournemouth team sitting outside the play-off places in the Championship.
As this season’s tournament reaches its final stages, we have looked back over Champions League history to see which nations have dominated it in various ways.
Manchester United’s first Europa League encounter with AC Milan at Old Trafford was a very even contest and few would argue 1-1 was a fair result. The return fixture in Italy promises to be another close contest, so we can’t see why the Red Devils have been made firm favourites to come out on top.
Arsenal were knocked out of the Europa League by Olympiacos last season despite winning the first leg so will be hoping lightning does not strike twice at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners are in control of their round-of-16 tie after a 3-1 win in Greece last week and their confidence was further boosted by Sunday’s derby victory against Tottenham.
Tottenham hold a 2-0 lead heading into the second leg against Dinamo Zagreb and should reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League without too much fuss. Harry Kane’s brace proved decisive in the first leg last week and another solid defensive display would see Spurs through.
Rangers battled back to claim a 1-1 draw with Slavia Prague last week and are now clear favourites to progress to the Europa League quarter-finals at Ibrox. We correctly tipped 16/5 for a score draw and 29/10 for both teams to score in the first half in the first leg so hopefully we can repeat that success.
Chelsea start the second leg of their Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid with a 1-0 lead and are fancied to build on that advantage. The Blues troubled their opponents on the break in Spain and should have more counter-attack chances here with Los Colchoneros needing to chase a win.
Bayern Munich aren’t going to give up their hold on the Champions League trophy lightly, judged on a 4-1 triumph away to Lazio three weeks ago. Hansi Flick’s side have since gone on to secure a trio of entertaining Bundesliga victories, although they did fail to keep a clean sheet in any of those games either.
An injury-hit Real Madrid returned from Bergamo with a 1-0 Champions League win over Atalanta but the Italian outfit can’t be written off just yet. La Dea were reduced to 10 men after just 17 minutes by the harshest of red cards and are fancied to be competitive in Spain with a full compliment.
Manchester City made light work of beating a struggling Borussia Monchengladbach side in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. That smooth 2-0 success meant the Blues have gone over 10 hours without conceding a single goal in Europe’s elite club competition.
Barcelona produced the greatest second-leg comeback in Champions League history against PSG four years ago and must attempt a similar feat this term. However, that famous triumph was on home turf and Barca were in far better shape than they are right now, so we fear this is a case of mission impossible.
Liverpool’s Champions League second-leg clash with RB Leipzig in Budapest presents punters with a fascinating conundrum. In terms of recent domestic results, the German outfit are in much better form, but the Reds were convincing victors in the first encounter, which was also played in Budapest.