Europa League: Chelsea v Benfica

The Europa League final is almost upon us with Chelsea and Benfica set to battle it out in one of Europe's most prestigious football tournaments.

Clubs qualify for the Europa League based on their performance in their national leagues and cup competitions, providing punters with plenty of decent opportunities to use Europa League betting offers that bookies give away.

Through to the final are English club Chelsea and Portuguese side Benfica. So which side do the bookies believe will walk away with the trophy and how should you use free bet offers like the £50 free bet that Coral offers when the sides meet in Amsterdam on the 15th of May?

Chelsea v Benfica Betting

Chelsea have had a stormy year with player relationships and club management all hitting the headlines. Manager, Roberto die Matteo was sacked last November and former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez replaced him.

It took a long time for the players to get used to Benitez and how he prefers to set teams up and Chelsea’s football only came good in the second half of the season.

They then became a very good proposition for free bets use, especially when they dropped out of the Champions League and became the bookies odds on favourite for the Europa League.

Eliminated from the Champions League, Chelsea came into the Europa League competition with a tie against Sparta Prague. If you decided to use free bet vouchers on Chelsea in the following rounds you did well, because from here it was game on.

They had no problem with Steaua Bucharest, Rubin or Basel, making the Europa League final with relative ease and are our tip for winning the 2013 Europa League trophy.

This will be their first attempt to win this trophy so maybe ‘beginners luck’ will persuade you to place one of our recommended bookies free bet offer on Chelsea.

It’s their chance to become one of a handful of clubs who have won both European trophies in back-to-back seasons. But what about the other side; could Benfica be a better bet when using bookie offers for the 2013 Europa League final?

Benfica also entered the competition via the Champions League, finishing third in a group against Spartak Moscow, Celtic and Barcelona.

Unlike Chelsea their road to the Europa League final has been quite bumpy and they’ve come up against some strong teams, including Bayer Leverkusen, Fenerbahçe and Newcastle.

Generally Benfica are having a pretty good season, both domestically and in Europe, but it’s been a while since Benfica featured in a European final.

It will be their first chance of winning a European trophy since 1961. Will they be up for the challenge, and are punters convinced enough by them to use a Europa League betting offer?

Betting Tip: Their striker Oscar Cardozo is at the top of his game and is very likely to finish the competition as leading goalscorer and represents a good option for 1st goalscorer/anytime scorer bets that the likes of William Hill offer UK punters.

Of course, this is Chelsea’s big chance to save their season and their past record against Portuguese teams is good; and probably represents the best use of the free bets that some of the the best bookies you can bet at are offering.

Chelsea met Benfica in a Champions league quarter final in 2012 where they beat them 3-1 on aggregate and would be our tip for doing that once again.

Having the weaker squad and going into the Europa League final as underdogs might just be the edge Benfica need to raise their game to Chelsea's high standards and come away victorious.

Europa League Final Betting Odds

If you're thinking of using a Europa League betting offer on the Chelsea v Benfica final, then you won’t be surprised to hear that Chelsea are favourites at most bookies.

Ladbrokes offers the best odds of 7/5 for a Chelsea win and Bet365 offers the best odds for betting on Benfica with 121/50 for the win and 241/100 the draw.

It's a small Europa Cup final betting market, but why not use the bet offers available and predict who will score the first goal in what’s looking like being one of the most exciting live-betting football finals of the year!