The seventeenth edition of ‘Round the Sports World in five minutes’ talks you through a mouth-watering tie in the Champions League between Barcelona and PSG and the richest flat race in Europe, as we head to Paris for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Barcelona v PSG Champions League
- Start: 1 October at 20:00
- Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain
- Coverage: TNT Sports 4
- Fun Fact: Ousmane Dembele won’t be featuring in this match as he continues recovering from injury. There are good reasons why the 2025 Ballon d’Or winner will be more upset about missing this match than usual: he played at Barca for six seasons, scoring 40 goals, before a 50 million Euro move to the French capital.
Betting
Barcelona and PSG are both 6.0 to win the Champions League, making them two of the four co-favourites in the competition, with Liverpool and Arsenal the other two available at that price.
So, you can see why this is such a huge match and why, on paper at least, they’re well-matched teams in terms of ability.
But, as ever, home advantage plays a big role in the setting of odds and goes a long way to explaining why Barcelona are odds-on here at 1.9 with Betfred, with the draw 3.75 and PSG out at 3.4. If you’d rather have two of the three outcomes on your side rather than just one, you can take the Barca win/draw at just 1.3, PSG or the stalemate at 1.83 or the third option of either side winning (rather than it being a draw), which is a 1.25 chance.
Whether those odds are justified by the end of the 90 minutes, we’ll have to wait and see. One thing we should have here is plenty of goals. It’s just 1.4 that we’ll see over 2.5 goals, while it’s almost a pick’em affair on the over/under 3.5 goals market, with over 3.5 goals at 2.0 and under 3.5 goals at 1.73.
But if there are to be plenty of goals in the match, then who might get them? Barca’s main striker, Robert Lewandowski, has three league goals this season and is 1.83 to score anytime, and 4.5 to open the scoring.
Elsewhere, it certainly hasn’t been lost on Betfred that Ferran Torres has had his shooting boots on so far this season. The former Man City attacker is just 2.5 to get one on the back of scoring four league goals already, and is 6.5 to open the scoring.
But it’s worth remembering who scored both of Barca’s goals in their only Champions League match so far: Marcus Rashford. The Man Utd star, on loan at Barca, is a very decent price at 3.1 to score anytime. It’s worth waiting to see whether he starts here.
As for PSG, in the absence of their main man Ousmane Dembele, Portuguese star Goncalo Ramos is the shortest priced of their players at 2.6 to score, with Vitinha, who may be on penalty duty in the absence of Dembele, on offer at 7.0 to get a goal at any time.
Summary
Make no mistake about it: these are two of the biggest football teams in Europe by any metric. They both have a huge fan base, a great stadium, some of the world’s best players in their squads, world-class managers, great success on the sporting field and plenty of ways of making money off it, to name but a few of their similarities.
But right now, it’s PSG who have the greater bragging rights as the defending champions of the biggest club competition of them all in Europe: this very one. They famously beat Inter Milan 5-0 in last year’s final, who had beaten Barca 7-6 (!) on aggregate in the semis, drawing 3-3 in Spain before Inter beat them 4-3 after extra-time in Milan.
These are early days yet in the competition, but a good win for either side here will not only be worth a priceless three points, it will also be a statement of intent.
Sadly, this match will be missing a handful of big names. Last season’s top scorer in this competition, Raphinha, is out injured, as are his Barca team-mates Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Alejandro Balde and Gavi.
PSG have plenty of injury problems of their own. Dembele, as we know, is out, while skipper Marquinhos is a major doubt and all-action midfielder Joao Neves is also struggling with a niggle, though he may at least feature off the bench.
2025 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe
- Start: Sunday, 5 October
- Venue: Paris-Longchamps
- Live Coverage: Sky Sports Racing
- Fun Fact: Despite many attempts at it over the years, a Japanese horse has never won this race. But this might be the year it happens, with strong Japanese contenders in the likes of Byzantine Dream, Croix Du Nord and aloha Alii, all in with a chance.
Betting
TalkSportBet are finding it quite hard to split Minnie Hauk, who is 4.5, and Aventure, available at 5.0.
Favourite Minnie Hauk could hardly have come into the race in better form. The 3-year-old Ireland-bred filly won all four of her races this season – the Cheshire Oaks, Epsom Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks – and for good measure also won her last race of the previous season.
Of course, it helps when you’re sired by the great Frankel, one of the greatest racehorses of the last fifty years and one that went unbeaten in its fourteen-race career. And it doesn’t do any harm to be trained by Aiden O’Brien, either, arguably the best in the business when it comes to winning the biggest flat races in the world.
Add ground versatility and a lightning finish to the equation, and you can see why she’s the horse to beat, though according to O’Brien himself, she’ll favour a strong pace.
But Aventure isn’t too far behind in terms of its credentials. Trained by another great in Christophe Ferland and sired by Seas the Stars, a prolific winner. Aventure was a runner-up in last year’s edition of this race, and to that she added a runner-up spot in the Prix Vermeille in 2024, before going one better this year in what was her first Group 1 win. She’ll prefer good to soft ground on the day, but like her big rival, adapts well to different conditions.
But at 17.0 with William Hill, there’s an outsider who may have far better chances than those odds suggest. Kolpana has been nothing but consistent this season, finishing as a very good runner-up in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot and then doing the same in the September Stakes at Kempton. She also placed in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Pretty Polly Stakes.
The lack of a win all season is a bit of a concern, and she should probably have won that September Stakes race after going off as a red-hot 1.5 favourite. So, winning it may be a bit too much of an ask, but she certainly rates a good each-way bet at those prices.
Summary
This is famously the most valuable flat horse race in Europe and as a result, attracts the top talent from Ireland, Great Britain, France, Japan, and beyond.
It’s run over 1 mile 4 furlongs, is open to three-year-olds and older and is the flagship event of the ‘Arc Weekend’.
The betting is more open than in recent years, so a good, competitive race is in prospect, and a surprise winner isn’t out of the question.
However, one factor to give considerable importance to is the stall draw: 18 of the last 23 winners came from stall 8 or lower. Up to 17 horses can take part in the race.
Betting Tip of the Week: Both Teams to Score in Both Halves - Barcelona v PSG
A good win for the column last time out with Kylian Mbappé scoring at odds of 2.15 despite Real losing 5-2 to rivals Atletico Madrid.
This week we’re going after a much bigger price. That Barca v PSG match could well be full of goals, and there are many ways to play that theory, but the one we like is that both teams score in both halves, which is a 6.5 chance with Betfred.
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