Weekend Review: Low-scoring Champions League final delights bookies as star forwards fail to find net
Bayern Munich’s 1-0 victory over PSG paid off for the layers as Betfred recalls “absolute carnage” of York races
Bookies breathed a sigh of relief last night after a low-scoring Champions League final between star-studded PSG and Bayern Munich left punters peeved.
German champions Bayern secured club football’s greatest prize for a sixth time in Lisbon after Kingsley Coman’s 59th-minute header was enough to dispose of French giants PSG.
With talent including Robert Lewandowski, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé on the pitch, many bettors expected a glut of goals, especially after Bayern had put eight goals beyond Lionel Messi’s Barcelona at the quarter-final stage.
Kingsley Coman was the hero as Bayern Munich claimed their sixth Champions League title 🏆
Last night's tense final in 60 seconds ⬇️#UCLFinal pic.twitter.com/KzIGV8HNWL
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 24, 2020
Kindred Group’s Ali Gill highlighted how misfiring forwards made it a pleasant evening for layers.
Gill said: “The match that no one expected was exactly what we, with our layers hats on at least, wanted to see. Although Bayern were favourites, by far the most action was on the overs goals front, with the obvious three of Lewandowski, Neymar and Mbappé to score also being very popular.
“Just one goal, no BTTS and none of those three on the score sheet was about as good as it got for us, although Bayern winning left a fair few punters in profit,” he added.
Betfred’s Alan Firkins echoed Gill, telling EGR: “We did okay on the Champions League final. The lack of goals was a big plus, though Bayern was always a loser in the overall book.”
William Hill’s Rupert Adams was also pleased with the low-scoring affair despite victory for the Bundesliga champions.
Adams noted: “Clearly Bayern was not the result that we were looking for, but the consolation was it was such a low-scoring game. Also, none of the star forwards found the back on the net, so no real complaints from us.”
Friday night also saw Sevilla beat Inter Milan 3-2 in the Europa League final as the Andalusian club netted its sixth title overall and its fourth in seven years.
📸 No one loves it like we do. No one. ❤️ 🏆#WeareSevilla #WeAreAllOfYou #UEL pic.twitter.com/lD7cceqvF1
— Sevilla FC (@SevillaFC_ENG) August 22, 2020
Gill said: “In the Europa League, despite Sevilla being the experts in that competition, Inter Milan were very well supported and that match left us with a healthy margin as well.”
Elsewhere, in horseracing, Firkins and Adams were both left scratching their heads after punter-friendly results.
Firkins said: “Saturday at York was like when a Cheltenham hotpot comes in – absolute carnage. Fred pushed Ebor winner Fujaira Prince out to 6/1, and we got absolutely hammered. Stretcher-job.”
Adams concluded: “The main meeting was pretty good but on Saturday night we had two big accumulators come in, one of which won £162,000 and the other £150,000, which kind of took the shine off the racing numbers.”