Gary Lineker’s ‘very rare’ bet on Champions League winner

Lineker has put money on an Italian team to take the trophy

Gary Lineker has revealed he put a “very rare bet” on Napoli to win the Champions League this season.

The Italian club reached the quarter-finals of the competition on Wednesday night after beating Eintracht Frankfurt 5-0 on aggregate.

Lineker tweeted after the match: “Really enjoy watching Napoli. They play such exciting football. Had a very rare bet on them to win the Champions League this season some months ago.”

Victor Osimhen scored a brace in their second leg against Frankfurt and he spoke after the match about the club’s historic march in the European tournament. Napoli have never won the Champions League.

“We want to enjoy the moment and look ahead. It’s a great win, we re-wrote the history of this club,” Osimhen said. “We keep dreaming, we don’t have limits. We follow our coach and look ahead.”

Manager Luciano Spalletti called the result “great” and was not drawn by comments made by Pep Guardiola. The Manchester City manager called Napoli the best team in Europe and Spalletti said he would not be falling for the “mind games”.

“I don’t feel proud, I don’t feel anything,” he said. “I know this game that everyone does to put pressure on the others. Are we putting Napoli in front of Manchester City? If they can spend €900m compared to our €9m, there must be a reason. It’s a game to build us up so they can knock us down.”

The two teams could be drawn against one another in the quarter-finals after City defeated RB Leipzig 8-1 on aggregate. The Champions League draw will take place on Friday.