Football betting tips: Women's Champions League
2pts Both Teams To Score at 5/6 (bet365)
The major European leagues have wrapped up for another year and all that’s left is the annual show-piece to crown Europe’s best domestic women’s football team, one final match of the season for all the marbles.
It’s Barcelona and there is one overriding favourite coming into the final.
In fact, before a ball had even been kicked in the qualifying rounds of the competition this season, there was one overriding favourite: Barcelona.
And even suffering a loss on the first group match day – their only Champions League loss so far this season – the Blaugranes have remained the steadfast favourites.
This has been a poor season by Barcelona’s very lofty standards - yet they still won the league and Supercup - and there is still so very much quality in squad and such a pedigree of success.
The final will mark Barcelona’s 100th game in the competition as well as their sixth final to date, and is their chance for their fourth European crown.
Conversely, the Gunners will be stepping out into just their second final, and first appearance in the last two since 2007 when the competition was still known as the UEFA Women’s Cup and the final was a two-legged affair.
What are the best bets?
Barcelona come into the tie off the back of better form, in fact, they’ll step out in Lisbon having won their last ten matches.
Arsenal, however, have been a little more up and down than they would have liked, losing two of their last three league games and conceding 12 times across the trio of matches.
And to answer that first burning question, yes, the Gunners have certainly been leaky of late, with back-up goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger visibly struggling to deal with the shots she’s faced.
If Arsenal are to have any hope of glory on Saturday, they’ll need Daphne van Domselaar fit to start between the sticks.
It is well worth mentioning, however, that if Barcelona have an Achilles heel, in can be found lurking around their own defensive third with Cata Coll managing just six clean sheets from ten UWCL outings this season.
Even as Barcelona were putting the shoes to Wolfsburg, winning 8-2 and 10-2 respectively on aggregate, their beleaguered opposition managed to find the back of the net in each leg.
So yes, a bet on BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE would be a sensible one.
Now that I’ve rubbished their defences, let’s talk about their respective strengths: attack.
But more than that, this is a game that both teams are going to want to dominate, we know all about Barcelona’s love of possession and those hypnotising es that bully their opposition into submission.
Whereas Arsenal have leant into being more of an aggressive team under Renée Slegers - a style she evolved from predecessor, Jonas Eidevall - Arsenal are a team that will run hard, but will do so with purpose.
Barcelona’s Plan A is always to work the ball into advantageous positions and take shots with a nice juicy expected goals (or xG) and they have plenty of attacking assets in both midfield and attack, boasting the last two Ballon d’Or winners in Alexia Putellas and you can well expect them to both be involved in the build-up in not goalscoring themselves.
Of course, there’s Polish international Ewa Pajor who scored the opening goal of the 2023 final, albeit for runners-up Wolfsburg.
But a player who has excelled this Champions League season and is, in fact the leading goalscorer in the competition is Clàudia Pina and with four braces in Europe this season already, if you’re going to look at any player to find the back of the net more than once, look no further.
That’s Barcelona but what of Arsenal, who’s the player who could help deliver an unexpected piece of silverware this season?
It has to be Mariona [Caldentey] who the Gunners signed from Barcelona ahead of this season.
A difference maker, Mariona has seven UWCL goals to her name this season but much more than that, she’s been a constant driver for Arsenal, getting the ball into better areas whilst keeping her ing crisp and even boasting strong defensive stats.
And of course it will be the first time that Mariona will be coming up against her former team, and we’re all familiar with that cliché.
What else do you need to know? The last seven UWCL finals have yielded 29 goals, and the last women’s final held in Lisbon [in 2014] finished 4-3, so it’s well worth erring on the side of a few goals, not least as both teams are weakest at the back.
And as said, it wouldn’t be the most surprising thing to see both teams score but, still, Barcelona, the current holders, remain the firm favourites.
Odds correct at 0935 BST (23/05/25)
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