Champions League betting: Ajax could advance, Glasgow Rangers in trouble

Matchday 5 of the 2010-11 UEFA Champions League season kicks off today as "Round of 16" play approaches. A full slate of games is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday nights, including three marquee matches seeing lots of betting action at BetUS, bet365 and Bodog online sportsbooks.

For the first team in this Champions League season, Real Madrid gets longer than 1/1 odds to win a match outright (they’re at 6/5 to win at Bodog or 5/4 at bet365), but they’re still favored over Ajax Amsterdam (11/5 at Bodog and bet365). Ajax is running in third place in Group G and so faces back-to-back must-wins; Madrid enters having already clinched a spot in the knockout stage and will play without Ricardo Carvalho, Gonzalo Higuaín and Sami Khedira, so Ajax might make a good bet here.

Like Madrid, Bayern Munich has already guaranteed itself a spot in the round of 16. While Roma would appear to be the second squad advancing from Group E, coach Claudio Ranieri has publicly stated that he wants a win against Munich this week so as to take all pressure off on gameday 6. With a Roma win and a Basel-Cluj draw, the Italian side goes on. BetUS and bet365 love Ranieri’s team in this one, posting 13/15 and 17/20 odds on a Roma win, respectively.

Finally, Rangers FC fights to keep its Champions League season alive in hosting Manchester United in Scotland. With Valencia taking on Bursaspor (a huge 14/1 underdog at Bodog), Rangers will essentially need consecutive wins to move on. Happily for the Scots, Man U. hosts Valencia in December. Unfortunately for them, the online sportsbooks tend to indicate the season effectively ends tonight: They’re longshots to win at 15/4, says bet365, while monstrous Manchester gets a line of 4/5 to win.

The entire schedule of games includes:

Day 1 - Nov 23
Spartak Moscow v. Marseille
Roma v. Bayern Munchen
Basel v. CFR Cluj
Chelsea v. Zilina
Ajax Amsterdam v. Real Madrid
Auxerre v. AC Milan
Braga v. Arsenal
Partizan Belgrade v. Shakhtar Donetsk

Day 2 - Nov 24
Inter Milan v. Twente
Tottenham Hotspur v. Bremen
Schalke v. Lyon
Hapoel Tel Aviv v. Benfica
Glasgow Rangers v. Manchester United
Valencia v. Bursaspor
Rubin v. Kobenhavn
Panathinaikos v. FC Barcelona

Hundreds of markets on each Champions League betting match are available at JackpotFinder-recommended online sportsbooks BetUS, bet365 and Bodog.