It\u2019s been a long and relatively quiet summer without top-level, competitive club football (if you exclude the Club World Cup) but that\u2019s all about to change again as we prepare for the European leagues to kick off.<\/p>\n
La Liga and Ligue 1 both get underway this weekend alongside the Premier League, but if you\u2019re an Italian or German football fan, you\u2019ll have to wait one more week before the season\u2019s action commences.<\/p>\n
There weren\u2019t too many shocks in last season\u2019s title race across the European leagues as Barcelona won the Spanish title, Bayern Munich regained their crown from Bayer Leverkusen and PSG, of course, won the French crown with ease. But there was a surprise in Italy as Antonio Conte\u2019s Napoli edged out Inter Milan to win their fourth Scudetto.<\/p>\n
With lots of activity in the summer window, it should make for an even more competitive landscape across the board in Europe. Xabi Alonso is the new man in the dugout at Real Madrid and he has four new signings to challenge Barcelona with, including ex-Liverpool man Trent Alexander-Arnold.<\/p>\n
Bayern Munich are expected to cruise to the Bundesliga title after adding Liverpool\u2019s Luis Diaz, while nearest challengers Bayer Leverkusen have been significantly weakened after selling Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong to Liverpool. We all know how the Ligue 1 race will go, but Serie A looks like it\u2019s anyone\u2019s for the taking.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at each title race across Europe and the betting landscape for each one.<\/p>\n
La Liga<\/p>\n
Real Madrid are seen as slight favourites over Barcelona in this year\u2019s La Liga race, with Betfair backing them at 10\/11, likely thanks to the momentum behind Los Blancos after picking up a new manager and a handful of new signings, including Alexander-Arnold, Bournemouth\u2019s Dean Huijsen and wunderkind Franco Mastantuono.<\/p>\n
Barcelona, meanwhile, are evens to win the title and might be slightly less favoured because of a lack of transfer action. Their only arrivals so far have been new goalkeeper Joan Garcia and the loan of Manchester United\u2019s Marcus Rashford, but Hansi Flick\u2019s side are still a massive threat to Madrid with superstars like Lamine Yamal, Raphinha and Pedri. They won last season\u2019s title by four points, scoring 102 goals in the process.<\/p>\n
You won\u2019t be shocked to hear that Atletico Madrid are the next best-backed side to win the league at 8\/1 \u2014 while the rest of the chasing pack have much longer odds. You can have Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao at 66\/1, while Real Betis are rated at 100\/1.<\/p>\n
Bundesliga<\/p>\n
Last season was a special one for Bayern and manager Vincent Kompany as he helped them reclaim the Bundesliga title after being stunned by Bayer Leverkusen last season. It also meant Harry Kane captured the first trophy of his career. You would expect the same result again this season with Bayern being rated at 1\/4 to retain their title.<\/p>\n
Leverkusen are going to have an uphill battle to get back on top, given all the key players they\u2019ve sold this summer. Defender Jonathan Tah even left Leverkusen for Bayern. That\u2019s reflected in much longer odds at 15\/2.<\/p>\n
Before Leverkusen\u2019s triumph in 2024, the last time Bayern didn\u2019t win the league was when Borussia Dortmund won under Jurgen Klopp in 2012. That gives insight into how much the Munich outfit have dominated this division over the past two decades. The black and yellow side are priced at 11\/1 to repeat that feat as the fourth favourites.<\/p>\n
Serie A<\/p>\n
Italy must have one of the most competitive divisions in Europe. Gone are the days when Juventus dominated year in, year out. Now you have at least four teams battling it out.<\/p>\n
Last season, it was Napoli and Inter Milan scrapping for the title, which was won by just one point as Antonio Conte\u2019s side needed a haul of 82.<\/p>\n
The year before, it was Inter who won the Scudetto as AC Milan finished runners-up, but last season they faltered and finished eighth. Atalanta finished third and underdogs Bologna ended up winning the Coppa Italia, so that gives you an idea of how open this year\u2019s Serie A could be.<\/p>\n
Of course, Napoli are going to be the favourites to defend their crown at 13\/8, with Inter not far behind on 11\/4 as they look to bounce back from finishing second in Serie A and runners-up in the Champions League final. Juventus haven\u2019t won Serie A since 2020 and they are trying to get back to the top. They\u2019re priced at 11\/2 to win back the title, while Roma are at 11\/1 and Atalanta are at 22\/1.<\/p>\n
Ligue 1<\/p>\n
Any guesses who the best-backed team to win Ligue 1 is? Nope, no prizes for correctly picking PSG, who are overwhelming favourites at 1\/12 to sum up the fact they\u2019ve only twice failed to win the title in the last 13 years, since they were taken over by Qatari-run group QSI.<\/p>\n
Fresh off winning the Champions League under Luis Enrique, PSG will feel confident about easing to another French title, though it\u2019s not beyond the realms of possibilities that another side could shock them.<\/p>\n
Monaco are the next favourites for the title with Betfair, who are giving them odds of 16\/1 to capture their first crown since 2017. Third favourites are Marseille at 18\/1 after finishing as runners-up last season, though ultimately finishing 19 points adrift of PSG. Further down the pile, Lille are rated at 28\/1 to win it and seven-time champions Lyon are at 40\/1.<\/p>\n
Betting\/odds links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply.\u00a0The Athletic\u00a0maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.<\/p>\n
(Photo of Lamine Yamal: Alex Caparros \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a long and relatively quiet summer without top-level, competitive club football (if you exclude the Club…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":144744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337,8930],"class_list":{"0":"post-144743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-sports-betting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115026470190893170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}