Betting Week in Review 30/5/2022 – Real Madrid Deny Number Seven for Liverpool
Betting Week in Review 30/5/2022 – A good weekend for bookmakers with heavily backed Liverpool failing to pick up a seventh Champions League title. Nottingham Forest had a narrow win against Huddersfield to gain promotion to the Premier League. There was no Holywood ending for Wrexham as Grimsby Town crushed their promotion dreams in a nine-goal thriller.
Real Madrid are champions of Europe for the 14th time © Pixabay.
Liverpool Fall short in Champions League Final
Within the space of seven days, Liverpool’s quest for an unprecedented quadruple was over, and the Reds had to settle for an FA Cup and a Carabao Cup double after first losing out by a point to Manchester City in the league and then losing 1-0 in the final of the Champions League to Real Madrid.
Before Saturday’s final in Paris, the bookmakers felt this game was only going one way, installing Liverpool as heavy favourites.
You’d have struggled to get better than 99/100 (1.99) on Liverpool collecting their seventh top European honour. Real Madrid was offered at almost double the odds at 139/50 (3.78) despite their European pedigree, with the draw priced similarly at 71/25 (3.78).
It’s pretty easy to make a compelling case for the low odds for Liverpool as they boast some heavy firepower. Mohamed Salah is the focal point of Liverpool’s attack, and the Egyptian has been lethal, sharing the Golden Boot in the Premier League with Tottenham’s Son with 23 goals (eight in the Champions League).
And even if the 29-year-old had an off day, The supporting cast of Sadio Mane and Diogo Jota had scored 31 league goals between them (16 Mane, 15 Jota).
With this in mind, it’s not a surprise that Liverpool had plenty of money behind them, especially in the win, goal scoring and the over 2.5 goals markets.
However, as was the case six days earlier for Liverpool, it would be so close, yet so far as a dominating performance from Thibaut Courtois in the Real Madrid goal frustrated the Reds. Liverpool had the better chances but paid the price for not converting them when Vinícius Júnior scored the game’s only goal with just over thirty minutes left to play.
There was plenty of huff and puff from Liverpool, yet they couldn’t find a way past the Belgian in the Real goal, who made nine crucial saves to pick up the man of the match award. He became the first goalkeeper to do so in the Champions League final since Edwin Van De Sar did in Manchester United’s victory over Chelsea in Moscow in 2008.
Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp, promised Liverpool fans that the team would come back from the defeat stronger and even told supporters to book their hotels for next season’s final.
The 2023 Champions League will conclude in Turkey, the location of Liverpool’s “Miracle of Istanbul”, where they won the 2005 edition of the tournament. Liverpool fought back from 3-0 at halftime to lift European football’s top prize in that game.
Nottingham Forest Party Like It’s 1999
While there was disappointment for the Reds of Liverpool, the red side of Nottingham celebrated long into the night after gaining promotion to the Premier League for the first time since 1999. A narrow 1-0 win against Huddersfield, thanks to a Colwill own goal before the break, was enough to see them go up after a 23-year wait.
Pre-match, the bookies had Nottingham Forest as clear favourites despite their long absence from the top-flight. Operators had Forest @ 109/100 to win the wealthiest prize in English football. Their opponents Huddersfield, who were relegated from the Premier League in 2019, were priced @ 149/50 with the draw available @ 111/50.
Forest’s promotion is remarkable because when manager Steve Cooper took control at the City Ground, Forest had lost six games out of their first seven and was firmly rooted at the bottom of the table and favourites to be relegated.
However, not only did the ex-Swansea boss steady the ship, but he also made them incredibly tough to beat, suffering only two losses in fifteen games at the turn of the year. They also finished the campaign strong and only narrowly missed out on automatic promotion by eight points, the 1-0 defeat to Huddersfield in May the only loss in nine games (7 wins).
Huddersfield will feel hard done by in the game after officials waved away two claims for penalties. To make matters worse for The Terriers, neither of the claims for a foul was referred to VAR, which was in operation at Wembley Stadium.
It capped off a terrible week for the town as their rugby team was also beaten. In the Betfred Challenge Cup, the Huddersfield Giants lost 14 – 16 to the Wigan Warriors.
Mighty Mariners Spoil Wrexham’s Holywood Ending
While goals were in short supply in the Champions League and the Championship play-off, the National League play-off semi-final between Wrexham and Grimsby Town was full of them, nine in fact. And for the second time in a week, Grimsby scored in extra time to claim the win. The Mariners will now face Solihull Moors in next Sunday’s final with promotion to League Two at stake.
The cameras at Wrexham’s Racecourse Ground were firmly fixed on the club’s superstar owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, before the kick-off, but it was the Grimsby players that stole the show in a pulsating match that swung from team to team.
Grimsby thought they had taken an early lead when their leading goalscorer John McAtee found the net within the first four minutes, but the striker’s effort was ruled out for offside. Wrexham then scored with their first meaningful attack of the game when they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Paul Mullin by former Wrexham man Luke Waterfall. Mullin took the penalty and hit a thunderous shot that gave Crocombe no chance in the Grimsby goal.
Grimsby equalised two minutes later with a fine effort from McAtee, and with no further goals in the first half, the teams went into the break at 1-1.
A classic half of football followed with the lead changing hands several times. Grimsby took the lead through Waterfall two minutes into the second half before Ben Tozer equalised on 63. Then, two minutes later, Mullin scored his second of the match to give Wrexham the lead. Ryan Taylor and Mani Dieseruvwe then scored for Grimsby before Jordan Davies equalised for Wrexham once more.
The game went to extra time and seemed to be heading to penalties before defender Luke Waterfall scored his second of the game to win the game for Grimsby in the 119th minute, less than a week after Mani Dieseruvwe had scored in the 119th minute against Notts County.
Grimsby are relishing the underdog’s tag as they were priced @ 281/100 for the County game and 343/100 for the Wrexham fixture (they drew both games in normal time). They will be playing Solihull Moors in the final, who beat chesterfield 3-1 in the other semi-final.
Solihull Moors are favourites @ 73/50, Grimsby are 7/4 with the draw priced @ 57/25.
The National League final takes place on Sunday. The kick-off is at 15:00, and coverage is on BT Sport.
