Four out of five big European football leagues have started their winter breaks before the holiday season, only in England the ball is played amid the celebrations.
Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1 and German Bundesliga return to fold only next year, with La Liga returning on the 3rd of January and Bundesliga as late as 17th of January. It’s as good time as any to take a look back how correct or incorrect Accuscore’s pre-season simulations have been up to this date.
Let’s have a look at French Ligue 1 and German Bundesliga.
In France the period of dominance by Paris Saint-Germain has lasted for almost a decade, with only Monaco managing to usurp the throne from PSG in 2016/2017. Otherwise it’s been PSG from the season 2012/2013.
There seems to be no end to the dominance this season either, with the Parisians leading the pack by seven points entering the winter break. Marseille are the closest challengers again, but the other Accuscore’s predicted dark horses have failed miserably: Lyon, tipped to even push for the title with odds of 2.75 have had a torrid season so far and are only 12th despite making it to the Champions League top 16 and St. Etienne, who were predicted to make it to top three with odds of 6.00 have fallen to 14th.
From the relegation candidates, Reims have surprised many and are basically safe and currently as high as sixth. Dijon and Brest on the other hand have overachieved a bit, but are only one and five points from relegation zone respectively. There’s still a lot of football to be played in France, but it does seem PSG’s reign will continue.
In Bundesliga, Bayern München has been as dominant as PSG in France. They’ve won seven straight titles and there’s been no challenger in sight. But not this season.
Heading to the longest break in the European top tiers, Bundesliga is led by RB Leipzig with 37 points, followed by Borussia Mönchengladbach two points behind and the Bavarians are only third with 33 points. Dortmund and Schalke are in contest still, with 30 points each. Needless to say, it seems that Bayern are in for a challenge if they wish to retain their title and make it eight straight.
Accuscore simulations pegged RB Leipzig as one of the possible winners with a hefty odds of 30.00. The other picks for the season were Leverkusen to make it to top four with odds of 2.38 – they are now sixth but only two points behind the fourth and Wolfsburg to top six with odds of 2.25. Wolfsburg were even on top of the league at a time, but are now four points behind the sixth position.
