Get to the Point

By Jimmy Harris

Jimmy is getting warmed up for Euro 2008 coming up in June and what better way to get caught up on football than to place a few bets on Wednesday's Champions League final.

Wednesday's final includes two English teams for the first time when Manchester United takes on Chelsea. Before deciding who to bet on, I did a little digging and went over the odds on the game at .

The odds I found had Man U. at +155, Chelsea at +222 and a draw at +206. In two previous EPL matchups this season each had won a single match, Man U won 2-0 back in September and Chelsea prevailed 2-1 in April.

I know a number of Manchester United supporters and thought about betting against Man U just to spite them, but in the end I figured +155 odds on a team I expect to win was just too good to pass up.

The other bets I made at were all props. The oddsmakers assembled some fun goals props using Ronaldo and Rooney. Ronaldo leads the Champions League with seven goals, but his goal-scoring prop is listed at +205 to score and -225 not to score in Wednesday's match.

That probably has something to do with the fact that he has zero goals versus Chelsea in nine career matches. Still, I'll take a goal at +205.

The same kind of odds were available for Rooney with +264 to score and -284 not to score. He's also had trouble finding the net against Chelsea with one goal in 10 matches, but +264 odds are too good to pass up considering that one goal came against Chelsea just last month.

It's not always we turn to soccer betting, but this is a special case and a special game, and one that provides great soccer line value.