I wouldn’t mind if Barca has to play the first leg at home. We look better on the counterthis season, and if the first leg is at home there’s a decent chance we go into the second leg just needing to hold the result (and counter like against Chelsea). At least we can’t draw Atlético.
Roma it is. Title contenders avoid each other. Barca x Roma Madrid x Juve Liverpool x Man City Bayern x Sevilla Liverpool x Man City will be interesting as Liverpool has had their number. Might be the most intriguing clash.
Yes! Perfect draw for Barca. We even get the first leg at home. Almost perfect draw all around. When there were 3 balls still in the bowl with two of them being LPB and City there was a decent chance for Pep v ZiZou. Unfortunately, didn't quite happen. Oh well...
I took what I updated (in bold) yesterday and put it all in italics. The updates to odds are pretty small given the unlikely draw which had none of the "first tier favorites" drawing each other. However, Barca is the new favorite as the 2 favorites who drew "second tier teams" each took a small hit. Here are the odds from Tuesday, after Roma and Sevilla qualified the odds look like this, with those playing tomorrow underlined, now updated after Barca and Bayern sealed advancing (which Bayern had practically done in the first leg): "First Tier - favorites to win it all" ManC 3 got slightly longer with Barca advancing 3.154 (41/13) NOW 3.5 Real 4.5 same SAME Bayern 5 shorter at 4.75, not sure why, we knew they'd qualify NOW 4 SHORTER AFTER GETTING SEVILLA Barca 5 shorter at 4 after eliminating Chelsea SHORTER AFTER GETTING ROMA "Second Tier - very dangerous but not expected to win it all" Liverpool 9 got slightly longer with Barca advancing 10 LONGER TO 14 Juve 10 same LONGER TO 13 "Third Tier" Chelsea 40 OUT! Sevilla 50 same LONGER TO 66 Roma 66 same LONGER TO 80 Besiktas 10,000 OUT!! PRE-DRAW THE FAVORITE PICK FOR NAMING THE 4 SEMIFINALISTS was ManCity, Bayern, Real, and Barca at 12:1 or something, but that bet was super risky as the odds were one would draw the other. Now those odds are not even posted as it would be way too easy to pick. Not that there might not be an upset or two. But right now that would be my strong pick, but I especially hope Juve can break in, followed by Liverpool. I don't give Sevilla or Roma much of a chance but hope that those games at least are not decided in the first leg (well I kinda do in Barca's favor, but I don't want it quite as tense as the Chelsea one went).
Agreed! And of courser there are cries in the LPB forum that the draw was rigged! This was waaay overdue! The nice draw for Barca, that is. Not the whinging in the LPB forum.
Road to LYON - Europa odds update. Bottom line, not much changed as favorite got the long shot and not Arsenal. Quick pre-draw update on Europa road to Lyon: Atletico 1.5:1 SAME AFTER DRAWING SPORTING, FILIPE LUIS HAS A BROKEN LEG Arsenal 4:1 NOW SHORTER 3.33 (10/3) AFTER DRAWING LONGSHOT CSKA RB Leipzig 10 SAME DREW MARSEILLE Lazio 11 NOW SHORTER 9.5 AFTER DRAWING SALZBURG Marseille 12 SAME Sporting 16 MUCH LONGER 33 Salzburg 18 NOW 20 CSKA 35 NOW 40 BELOW IS ALL EARLIER HISTORY OF THE ODDS, NOTHING NEW SINCE YESTERDAY AND EARLIER: So one huge favorite, a clear runner up, 5 middle of the pack, 1 long shot which isn't even that long. Since last draw two of top 4 and 4 of top 8 are out: BVB, Milan, Lyon, and Bilbao. Here's where things stood as recently as March 8th: What a difference a day makes, err two days, below are Tuesday's odds. Now updated after today's games Road to Lyon in italics and on the right side: Arsenal's odds have gotten longer (from 6.5:1 to 7:1) but a couple betting sites are still paying 15:1 for Milan (though most others are paying 12, 14, or even 10 for Milan). Since I last posted after the draw (on Feb. 23rd) I am adding changes in BOLD to the right, but only IF they changed: Atletico - 3.5:1 now 2.6 big gain after getting Lok Moscow 2.25 (9/4) got even shorter perhaps now that they can give up Liga dreams and pursue Europa title wholeheartedly same Arsenal 6 now 6.5 now 7 now 4:1!!!!!! BVB 10 now 6 big gain after drawing Salz now 6.5 now 22!!!!, though most sites are at 12-14 Milan 13 now 15 now 80:1!!!!!!!! RB Leipzig 18 now 13 big gain despite drawing Zenit now 12.5 now 12 but most sites have them at 8-11 Lazio 20 now 16 nice gain after getting Dyn Kiev now 12 now 20 but mostly shorter odds Lyon 25 same now 14, why such a big change? now 12 Bilbao 28 now 27 now 80!!!!!!!!! Zenit 30 now 40 now 40 Marseille 33 now 25 now 20 now 14 Sporting Lisbon 33 now 20 now 14 CSKA 60 now 66 now 100 Salzburg 66 now 150 huge drop now 40 Lok Moscow 100 now 125 now 2000 Dynamo Kiev 125 now 100 now 66 Plzen 200 same now 500
Wow. Awesome draw for us. Not counting our chickens yet, anything can happen. Of course LPB gets the 2nd leg at home. I'm sure Juve will bend over.
Well this may be our first easier QF in a long time, but they must also feel put upon as they just got by PSG whereas we only had Chelsea, and the other favorites had cakewalks, with Juve and Spurs being well matched but not true favorites. This time Real and ManC can feel a bit unlucky compared to Barca and Bayern. But all 4 our favored, no favorite drew a true favorites, if all do their jobs we will have semifinals of dreams. Barca-Bayern-City-Real in some configuration.
Not so sure... 4 - Real Madrid have been eliminated in all their four #UCL ties against Juventus (except. final), three with the second leg in Italy & only one with the second leg in Spain, the last in 2015 (1-1 at Bernabéu). Danger pic.twitter.com/YDkSIk8AbX— OptaJose (@OptaJose) March 16, 2018
Well we couldn't have drawn PSG because we won our group, whereas they sucked didn't! We also couldn't draw Juve or any Spanish club, so Chelsea was actually the second-most difficult option left (PSG was also only the second-most difficult among their possible opponents). You know this of course, I'm just writing this for the lurking Madrid fans.
Well that was the first tough draw they've probably had since 2012. There was some statistical relation made to elo rating and Uefadrid had like 20% easier opponents on average than anyone else, a complete outlier.
Yeah first tough draw against Bayern in years, and then they got 2 offside goals, and Bayern got two reds. Doesn't really earn your trust when you see stuff like that.
One guy said he can't think of an easier path to the SFs recently compared to Bayern ... *cough* CSKA, APOEL *cough*
Or Roma - Wolfsburg. In their defense, a lot of them just hopped on the Madrid bandwagon in mid-2016 when Madrid were on the rise so their knowledge of history is a bit crap.