Champions League Group E betting

Group E Champions League odds and tips

Last years Champions League runners-up Bayern Munich will be hoping to go one better this time around and they have been drawn with Roma, FC Basel and CFR Cluj. Louis Van Gaal’s Bavarian’s should negotiate Group E and will be bidding to win the trophy for the first time since 2001. Germany’s most successful club justify favouritism at 4/6 to finish as group winners and they begin with a testing tie against Roma at the Allianz Arena. Bayern should however overcome the Italians at home and look backable at 8/11 (Bet365) to collect all three points and make the perfect start.

Group E winner odds

Ex-Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri led A.S Roma to a second placed finish in Serie A last season but have been unable to finish at the summit since 2001. However, they did perform well in both the Coppa Italia and the SuperCoppa Italiana but again had to settle for second best in both. And they may have to do so again behind Bayern in Group E but if they are to stick their heads in front and win the group they can be backed at 11/5 (Bwin.com). If they can avoid defeat in Munich in the opener they stand a chance of nicking a draw at Paddy Power’s 12/5. Roma will be solid in the Stadio Olimpico and are just 2/9 (Stan James) to qualify through the group.

Swiss side FC Basel had to go through qualifying in order to make last Thursday’s Champions League draw in Monaco. They dispatched of Debreceni and Sheriff Tiraspol and Thorsten Fink’s side will be a tough nut to crack in the competition. They are no strangers to European competition since bursting onto the scene in the 2000-01 season and have won the Swiss Super League a massive thirteen times. Their best success in Europe’s elite tournament came in the 2002/03 season when they made it to the knockout rounds. It is unlikely they are going to go this far this year but they can continue their European adventure in the Europa League by finishing third. They begin with a trip to Cluj on September 15 but could struggle to get anything in Romania and are best priced 2/1 (William Hill) to win the game and a larger 9/2 (Victor Chandler) to qualify through Group E.

Romanian football seems to be on the up after CFR Cluj and rivals Unirea Urziceni have both recently made their Champions League bows. The former is their only representative this year but caught the eye in the 2008/09 competition winning their opener with Roma and holding Chelsea to a draw. Cluj are the current Romanian champions having achieving this accolade for only the second time in their history but are the outsiders at 7/1 (Paddy Power) to make the last 16. But they are capable of causing a few upsets in Group E albeit en route to their inevitable early exit. However, Bwin.com offer odds of 13/10 that Cluj mastermind a win against Basel in the first and this certainly seems worth a small stake.

Reccomended bets: Roma to win the group at best odds 7/4 with Blue Square – Free £66 worth of bets

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