Gary Lineker reveals the bet he put on Champions League winners 'some months ago'

Gary Lineker has revealed he placed a "rare" bet on who will win the Champions League "some months ago" and it could well come in.

The quarter-final draw will take place on Friday, with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Chelsea just some of the leading names tipped to win this year's competition.

But Lineker is all in on Luciano Spalletti's Napoli, who reached the last eight for the first time in their history after a thumping 5-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.

They topped their group ahead of Liverpool, who they beat 4-1 at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in September.

Napoli are flying high at the top of the Serie A table, sitting 18 points clear of Inter Milan as they close in on a first Scudetto since 1990.

And Lineker reckons they will go all the way and win the Champions League for the first time. And he's not exactly new to the party, having lumped on them a few months back.

The BBC Match of the Day host took to Twitter, writing: "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."

Really enjoy watching @en_sscnapoli. They play such exciting football. Had a very rare bet on them to win the Champions League this season some months ago.

— Gary Lineker 💙💛 (@GaryLineker) March 15, 2023

Napoli have blew teams away with their breathtaking brand of football, with Victor Osimhen, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Kim Min-jae all starring for I Partenopei.

AC Milan legend Ruud Gullit has them down as favourites for the competition, while Pep Guardiola said they are "perhaps the best team in Europe this season".

But Spalletti didn't enjoy those comments in the slightest and claims Guardiola was playing mind games.

Responding to Guardiola's praise, he said: "I don’t feel proud, I don’t feel anything. I know this game that everyone does to put pressure on 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.”