BetUK Blog

Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack believes Wednesday night’s Champions League Final is a “golden opportunity” to make up for his past failures - and it could be worth backing him to play a major role for Chelsea.

The Germany captain was a losing European Cup finalist in 2002 when Real Madrid beat his Bayern Leverkusen team. And as well as losing in the Champions League final, Leverkusen conceded the Bundesliga title to Bayern Munich and were beaten in the German Cup final too.

Ballack will remember the 2002 season well - especially as this one is beginning to resemble it. So far Chelsea have lost a League Cup Final to Spurs, and got pipped to the Premiership title by Man Utd on the last day of the campaign.

At Chelsea he has developed into an instrumental player for manager Avram Grant after a lengthy period on the sidelines earlier in the season with an ankle injury.

Remember that he also scored both goals in Chelsea’s 2-1 league win over United last month and the player himself says he feels revitalised. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if he has a massive game on Wednesday night.

One thing we aren’t assured of in Saturday’s FA Cup Final between Portsmouth and Cardiff is goals. Every Portsmouth FA Cup win this season has been by just the one goal and given the tense nature of a Final, it would be surprising to see the favourites cut loose. Moreover, seven of the last 17 FA Cup Finals have ended in one goal victories. The score could be 1-0 Portsmouth. After all, this has been the scoreline in four of their five cup games and with a miserly defence, the Premiership side can produce a performance and result akin to the one which saw them beat West Brom 1-0 in the previous round. And don’t forget that five of the last 17 Cup finals since 1991 have ended 1-0. The writing would appear to be on the wall.

Rumours are swirling at Stamford Bridge that Chelsea manager Avram Grant is getting some stick due to his team selection for the Champions League Final against Man Utd in Moscow next Wednesday. The main points of contention are that Essien wants to play in midfield which would mean Makelele would be demoted to the bench. Secondly, Abramovich is keen for Shevchenko to at least get some game time in front of the owner’s home crowd. Finally, the usually popular Drogba is getting it in the neck from some players, in particular Ballack, for the comments in his autobiography that he wants to move to AC Milan. This isn’t the best preparation days before the biggest game of the season.

It is universally acknowledged in football circles that momentum is a key factor in the Football League play-offs.

It explains why in-form Crystal Palace were as short as 7/4 to win promotion from the Championship before losing to Bristol City on Tuesday night. So, the momentum factor didn’t play with Palace but there will be plenty of punters willing to bet it will with Hull, who thrashed Watford 4-1 (6-1 on aggregate) last night.The momentum is clearly now with the boys from Hull and we have a thrilling Championship Play-Off Final at Wembley on 24 May to look forward to.

Tomorrow is the first day of the eagerly-awaited first Test against New Zealand and it will be interesting to see how Michael Vaughan performs with the bat over the next few days. In the England top runscorer market for the first innings he is priced up at 9/2. Ok, the England skipper is out of form and under pressure but he is a quality batsman and will be keen to stamp his mark on the series with a big score. It could be worth having a flutter at that price.

Although this might sound weird on the NZ side it could be worth having a few quid on Daniel Vettori to be top runscorer. I know he’s primarily a bowler but what should not be forgotten is that he is one of the best Test No 8s ever, scoring an impressive 230 runs in the last series. New Zealand’s inexperienced top order looks vulnerable and Vettori may find he has to get NZ out of a hole by scoring some runs after his team mates at the top of the order flounder. Just a thought!

Wow! A Scottish club in a European Final. That doesn’t happen very often - in fact, it is 36 years since Rangers were last in one. They make the short trip to Manchester on Wednesday evening to face side Zenit St Petersburg, one of the most exciting teams of the competition.

But although the Russian side stunned runaway Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich 4-0 in the semi-final second leg there is reason to believe the Final won’t be a goalfgest.

They have lost striker Pavel Pogrebnyak to suspension, and given he has has scored 50% of Zenit’s total European goals this term, there is reason to believe that Rangers’ goal won’t be peppered in the same way Bayern Munich’s was.

Rangers have a top defence, have conceded just two goals in their last eight games, and are unbeaten in their last four without letting in a single goal.

This suggests the game could be a cagey affair so the value could be in betting on a low-scoring encounter.

Sadler’s Wells was pretty good on the racecourse but he was even better at stud and it’s just been announced that the old boy is to be retired from stud duties due to declining fertility. Well, he is 27-years-old!

If that doesn’t sound old consider that equine experts reckon you have to multiply a horse’s age by three to get their equivalent human age. That means the equine superstud is over 80-years-old - and he is only now being put out to grass!

The decision was made by the team at Coolmore Stud - Irish billionaire John Magnier’s breeding operation - where Sadler’s will remain in retirement having stood there since the end of the 1985 Flat season.

He was champion sire in Britain and Ireland a record-breaking 14 times, including 13 years in succession. The extraordinary list of his progeny includes Galileo, Montjeu and High Chaparral, who are carrying on the family line at Coolmore.

His influence will be felt for man years to come - even in this year’s Derby on June 7 in which two of his sons - Curtain Call and Kingdom of Naples - are among the current favourites. Two of his sons and two of his grandsons (by Montjeu) have won this race in the last eight years so that’s worth bearing in mind when it comes to having a punt on the big race.

So, Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff is still carrying an injury and we will be deprived of his talents in the first Test Match against New Zealand, which starts this Thursday at Lords. What a pity! England always seem to play better when Freddie is in the team - unless he’s been out drinking, of course, which he has been known to do.

Freddie’s fitness coach has said that ideally he wanted Flintoff to have another 100 overs under his belt before being recalled - and there is also the fact that he has hardly scored a run this season to consider. So Freddie returns to the physio’s couch for now, and England have named what ended the recent New Zealand tour as their strongest 12.

Even without Flintoff England should still be able to triumph over what looks a pretty inexperienced NZ side.

If you want a bet on the last day of the Premiership you could do a lot worse than backing over 2.5 goals in Sunday’s games. There could be a goal rush. Over the 15 years of the Premier League, the last round of games averages nearly three goals per match (2.98) when the league average for a game is 2.60.

The trend is even stronger when that final game of the season is a dead rubber and the Sunderland v Arsenal, Tottenham v Liverpool and Middlesbrough v Man City games all look prime opportunities to bet over 2.5 goals.

Games between teams with nothing to play for on the last day of the season average 3.14 goals/game – compared to 2.83 for those games involving teams that need a result. In fact, 63 per cent of last day dead rubbers have featured at least three goals as opposed to 52 per cent for matches with something at stake.

If the home team is lower in the table – as is the case in all three of the games mentioned above – the goals/game tally is even higher at 3.54. Get stuck in!

James Blake, the tournament’s eighth seed, was upset on Friday by unseeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. The win puts Wawrinka into the semi-finals of the Rome Masters.The American Blake won a very entertaining first set in a tiebreak, despite Wawrinka breaking him in the third game. Wawrinka rallied back to win a tiebreak of hos own in the next set before going on to win the match. 

The young Swiss had topped former world number ones Juan Carlos Ferrero and Marat Safin, as well as getting by Britain’s Andy Murray to reach this stage. Wawrinka will now be challenged again when he faces the winner of the match between American Andy Roddick and Spain’s Tommy Robredo.

You can bet on the tournament action at BetUK.com