Champions League football betting update

Tottenham will be pleased to avoided the bigger names in the draw for the final qualifying round of the Champions League this morning. The North Londoners will face Swiss side Young Boys for a place in Europe`s elite competition and most bookmakers have made them 10/11 (bet £110 to win £100 profit) to win the first leg, which will be played in Switzerland, with the draw at 23/10 and Young Boys 3/1 with Boylesports.

Ajax were drawn against Dynamo Kiev and the famous Dutch side are 13/5 with Blue Square and 888 Sport to go to the Ukraine and earn a lead to take with them to take back to Holland for the second leg. The draw is 23/10 with the same two firms, while the hosts are evens with Sky Bet and Stan James.

Sampdoria and Auxerre are both 3/1 to win at Werder Bremen and Zenit St Petersburg, while the home sides are 10/11 and 5/6 respectively in two extremely even ties of rare quality at this stage of the competition. The prize up for grabs is huge and we are in for a lot of excitement come the 17th August, when the first leg matches will be played.

Barcelona are favourites to win the Champions League after retaining their La Liga title last season. The bookmakers offer 7/2 on the Catalan side, who look stronger than ever after signing David Villa and with the likely improvement of young stars such as Pedro and Sergio Busquets there is no question that they are the most likely team to win the competition, as they did in 2006 and 2009.

They are followed in the betting by Real Madrid, who can boast an extremely impressive collection of stars and the greatest manager on the planet in Jose Mourinho, who won the tournament last season with Inter Milan, eliminating Barcelona in the process. Madrid are 5/1 with Coral and Paddy Power but they have been terrible in the Champions League recently, last year going out to an average-seeming Lyon team in the quarter-finals.

Chelsea are seen as the most likely English team to win the competition, at 13/2 on Betfair, with Manchester United and Arsenal at 8/1 and 14/1 respectively. Tottenham, playing in the Champions League for the first time in their history, are available at 66/1 with Coral to mark their debut season with an incredible triumph.

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