@BurrOaks77's UEFA Champions League Soccer Futures - 2/13

Putting my Madrid bias aside, Napoli is an absolute WAGON right now. They are without a doubt playing the best football in all of Europe this season. Their offense runs it up. Their midfield controls the ball and dispossesses opponents at will. Their back line is coordinated and effective. Their keeper is red hot. AND they have world class substitutes coming off the bench.

Napoli has five guys up top who can score at the drop of a hat. Victor Osimhen is the tip of the spear and leads all of Italy in goals scored. Victor has amassed 17 goals and 3 assists in Italy. He was injured for half of the qualifying stage and Napoli still looked like MONSTERS.

Now that I’ve been honest and given Napoli their due credit, let’s talk about the defending champs Real Madrid. Madrid has won this competition a record 14 times and is the current trophy holder. As far as I am concerned, this is the clear cut number two team in the competition. Madrid has dealt with injury problems, guys playing an excessive amount of minutes, competing for 5 different titles internationally and domestically, and a ton of media scrutiny. Through it all, Don Carlo has kept a steady hand on the wheel and managed to have this team in position to defend their title.

Madrid are the heart attack kids. They don’t play pretty football. They will make you rip your hair out. They will make you curse the skies in anger and frustration. But there’s not a lead in soccer insurmountable for this team. When the chips are down and the clock is running short on time, there’s no team more dangerous than Madrid. Especially at the Santiago Bernabeu. When you come at the kings, you best not miss. Madrid by 1,000,000.

I think City is always a threat as well, but they have not played their best football yet this season. And at around 2:1 odds, I don’t think that is a great position to be invested in. I think there will be more value in betting them game to game than taking a futures position.

I don’t see this team winning it all, but I could see Haaland running up the goals against some of these clubs.

If you like him for golden boot, I won’t try to talk you out of it.

Bayern is currently third in the Oaks power rankings. This team has handled the adversity of losing Mane and Neuer well. They started the post World Cup campaign with a tough draw on the road at RB Leipzig. That is a tough first game and long travel domestically. The bigger concern was dropping points at home to Klon and Frankfurt. Thomas Muller was not in the starting lineup for those 3 games. Once he returned, Bayern started doing Bayern things. They blessed Wolfsburg 4-2 on the road then went to Bochem and beat them 3-0.

I can see this team making a deep run with Mane coming back. Bayern’s biggest issue is defense and playing teams that dominate possession. They struggled with Villarreal last year and ultimately were eliminated by them.

7:1 is a solid price if you are looking to invest.