Champions League: No Chelsea but familiar favourites

Barcelona continue to impress under new coach Tito Vilanova

The English and European champions are gone, but the usual frontrunners for the trophy and top scorer remain...

Juventus made sure that's Chelsea usual invitation to the knockout rounds of the Champions League didn't arrive and Manchester City disappointed again, but there were few other group-stage shocks.

Whereas last season saw Basel eliminate Manchester United and APOEL outperform three European regulars, the surprises this time beyond the fall of the Premier League's blue entrants were Zenit's failure to trouble rebuilt Malaga and AC Milan sides, and Celtic slaying Benfica and Spartak Moscow.

As most anticipated challengers progressed, the potential exists for several spicy second-round ties to be drawn in a fortnight, particularly as Arsenal, Real Madrid and Shakhtar finished as runners-up.

The other consequence is that the winner market has a familiar feel, with 3.65n/a-rated Barcelona slightly clear of 4.84/1-valued Real Madrid and everyone else a considerable distance behind. In fact, the six leading contenders are split into three distinguishable groups.

After the Clasico contestants come the Bundesliga's big two, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, whose style, cohesion and ability to score with menacing regularity see them rated the main threat to their Spanish equivalents. Bayern are priced at 8.88/1, with Dortmund a slither behind at 9.08/1.

The third pair of plausible champions lead Europe's other two elite leagues, with Premier League pacesetters Manchester United available at 13.012/1 and Serie A's finest Juventus trading at 14.5n/a.

13.012/1 is an unusually hefty price to be able to back England's most fancied team at this juncture, reflecting their reduced impact in recent campaigns, while Juventus are the most highly regarded Italian club since Mourinho's Inter following their displays against Chelsea.

The top scorer scrap appears fairly broad at present with Galatasaray's Burak Yilmaz tied with Cristiano Ronaldo on six and Lionel Messi one behind on five alongside Oscar and Alan, whose tournaments are over.

However, Messi is still a strong favourite at 2.285/4 having claimed the honour in each of the past four seasons, with Ronaldo the only other candidate offered at single digits at 2.829/5.

Reflecting the aforementioned three tiers of frontrunners, Spain - who have four round-of-16 participants with Malaga and Valencia qualifying - are 1.8810/11 to provide the winners, with Germany (who also possess Schalke) 3.711/4 to halt their 12-year drought and England and Italy both 8.615/2.