Rizzoli as ref means back cards in Champions League final

The King of Stats on this site has already correctly identified that red cards would be shown in Real Madrid’s Champions League game with Manchester United at Old Trafford this season and the FA Cup final.

And there is a strong possibility that another highly important game will fail to end with 22 players on the pitch now that Nicola Rizzoli has been named as the referee for the Champions League final.

It is hard to know what the Italian’s favourite colour is, but yellow and red are both strong contenders based on his frequency of pulling them from his pockets this season.

Rizzoli has sent off players in five of his last seven games and it is worth noting that the last time that Bayern Munich faced Dortmund, which was earlier this month in the Bundesliga, Rafinha was dismissed.

Jens Lehmann remains the only player to have been sent off in normal time in a European Cup final and it is 3/1 that another player joins him on this list at Wembley.

However, it may be in the bookings markets where punters can expect the most profit, as Rizzoli usually doesn’t hesitate to wave his yellow card either.

He has booked at least five players in all of his four Champions League outings this season, while at least five players have seen yellow in seven of Rizzoli’s last eight games in all competitions.

The 7/5 on offer for over four cards in the final simply has to be taken and five of Bayern’s last six Champions League games would have additionally seen this bet landed.

Some may argue that Bayern and Dortmund have received fewer bookings than any other Bundesliga club this season, but with so much on the line here, tackles are likely to be that little bit harder and players will be that bit more determined to leave it all out on the pitch.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publication