The Champions League got under way in September with some surprising results, including

defeats for Man City at home to Lyon and Tottenham at Inter.  Liverpool won the tie of the round, beating PSG 3-2 at Anfield.

There are two more matchdays coming up in October and these will be very important

for all the sides involved.

Barcelona 6/1 (Bet365)

Juventus 7/1 (Paddy Power)
Bayern Munich 7/1 (Coral)
Real Madrid 8/1 (William Hill)

Man City started as favourites at 9/2, but have drifted out to 11/2 after that opening match defeat to French league Lyon.  Liverpool could be got at odds of 12/1 at the start of the competition, a price we recommended in this column.  they are now a best priced 8/1 and look like putting in another strong showing this season after last year's final defeat to Real Madrid.

Last year's winners Real Madrid can be had at 8/1 but have not had a great summer in the transfer market, losing talisman Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus and not really replacing him, Man Utd at 30/1 don't really appeal and Tottenham have drifted out to 50/1, after last week's late capitulation to Inter Milan.

Overall it looks quite an open and exciting Champions League this season, with no one outstanding team looking a clear favourite, it's a great market for betting fans.

Unfortunately there is another dreaded international break in October.  England play two matches in the new UEFA Nations League, which no-one seems to understand.  However it does bring up two interesting matches, both away from home, at Croatia and Spain.

England will have to be at their very best to get anything from these matches as they were outplayed for long periods by Spain at Wembley and still will have sore meomories of the World Cup Semi Final defeat by Croatia.

The outright for the Croatia vs England match are as follows:

England 8/5 (Betfred)