Football Tips: Thommo’s 4 fine punts for Man City v Chelsea Champions League final

Paddy's football ambassador Phil Thompson runs the rule over the Champions League final with PPTV.

By / Football Tips / 4 years ago

* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

Phil Thompson is a man who knows a thing or two about European glory. Paddy’s football ambassador is a three-time European Cup winner with Liverpool and he’s up for the cup again this weekend.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, it’s Manchester City v Chelsea in the Champions League final in Porto on Saturday and Thommo’s back to help you win some cash. So, here’s the big man’s take on the Champions League final.

Man City v Chelsea

City have already won a double and you look at Chelsea, they lost against Leicester in the FA Cup final 1-0. They lost against Villa in the last game of the season and were lucky to get into the top four. But one of the big things about these two teams is the defences.

Chelsea have only conceded 34 so they have the second-best defence in the league. Who’s got the best defence? Manchester City. They’re very, very similar there and I think Chelsea have had 18 clean sheets and Man City had 19 clean sheets. Chelsea only scored 58, Manchester City? 83. There’s a big difference there.

For Chelsea, that’s the second lowest that they’ve scored since 1999/00 when they only scored 53 goals. They’ve only got 58 this year so you can see there’s a lot more going for City.

I don’t think there’s going to be too many goals here and I do think City are going to dominate the ball, as they do. But Chelsea, as they’ve shown against City, they are able to defend very, very well. And, as we’ve seen with them conceding only 34 goals, they will be better on the counter attack.

Who will they go for up front? Will they go for Timo Werner? Will they go for Tammy Abraham? Will Thomas Tuchel go for Olivier Giroud? I think he’ll still go for Werner because as we’ve seen in that FA Cup semi final, they will try and hit those long balls just into the inside forward positions which caught out Man City, certainly for the goal they scored.

I do think Chelsea will sit back and they can defend very well. Score wise, I am going to go for a score draw so Both Teams to Score, I’m going for 1-1 after 90 minutes. As I say, not a high-scoring game. I do fancy both teams to score in this, that would be my big bet on the day.

We do need a winner and somebody is going to have to win this game and over the extra time, and it will go to extra time, that’s what my crystal ball says to me, I’m going for Manchester City to Win the Champions League.

I’m going to go for an anytime goal scorer. I’ve got to go for City, I do think they’ll score first but I’m going to go for Ilkay Gundogan to Score Anytime. He does take penalties and free kicks. You can see him arriving late in the box.

It could be him or it could be Phil Foden. But Gundogan has scored 17 this season. Foden’s scored 16, Riyad Mahrez 14, Raheem Sterling 14, these are all the leading goal scorers for City. I just fancy Gundogan. Paddy’s football trader, Jason Murphy, throughout the season when we were talking about big games, he always put him in and I’ve always thought,’ Yeah, that is a really good bet’.

Thommo’s Champions League Final Tips

Both Teams To Score
Correct Score (90 mins): 1-1
Manchester City to Lift The Cup
Ilkay Gundogan to Score Anytime

* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

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