Man City must win to keep alive Champions League hopes
Published:Manchester City may be forgiven for having one eye on their crunch Premier League encounter with Manchester United this weekend, but a failure to win their home Champions League clash with Villarreal would leave them on the brink of an early exit from the competition.
One point from their opening two Champions League games was not the start the club was expecting and now three points is a must from Villarreal’s trip to Eastlands.
The good news for Manchester City is that they are unbeaten in their last 13 European home games, while Villarreal have failed to find the target in their last four trips to England.
Manchester City’s odds are 1/3 to beat Villarreal and they may be keen to rely on the creativity of David Silva to achieve victory, who will know the opposition better than most following his handful of seasons at Valencia.
Silva will be well rested having only played a bit part in Manchester City’s latest Premier League victory over Aston Villa and he is 2/1 to find the net at any time in the 90 minutes against Villarreal.
After two Group A defeats, Villarreal may feel they have nothing to lose if they want to keep alive their slim hopes of qualification for the knockout stages.
They are 9/1 to beat Manchester City, with the draw available at 4/1.
A goalless draw may be the best Champions League bet in the other Group A encounter as Bayern Munich travel to Napoli.
Bayern have not conceded a goal since their opening Bundesliga game of the season, a run of 12 games in all competitions.
Meanwhile, Napoli have kept clean sheets in their last six European home games.
It is 8/1 that the pair play out a goalless draw, with Napoli 14/5 to triumph with home advantage and Bayern 1/1 to make it three wins from three fixtures in the group.
