Man City’s European struggles won’t be ending just yet
Published:
Louis van Gaal leads Man United out at Old Trafford for the first time in a Champions League group game tonight, while Man City head to Germany for a potentially tricky fixture.
Juventus and Real Madrid are also in action this evening, but we’re not so sure everything will go their way.
Ladbrokes News have run the rule over tonight’s matches and put together a four-fold paying £126 from a £5 stake.
Had this fixture been played two weeks ago, Manchester City would have probably won comfortably.
Their German hosts opened their campaign with five straight defeats in the Bundesliga, but have since won two successive games, netting seven times.
Couple that with City’s capitulation at Tottenham, an injured captain in Vincent Kompany, and the manager’s uncertainty about which goalkeeper to start with, and this is suddenly a rather tricky European away trip.
The Citizens have now lost three of their last four games in all competitions, and it’s hard to be confident about them this week in Germany either.
They may have lost their opening Group C game to PSV in Eindhoven, but current Premier League leaders Manchester United have won all three games since then, netting nine goals.
The attacking quartet of Wayne Rooney, Juan Mata, Memphis Depay and new boy Anthony Martial is really starting to gel and could well trouble a stuttering Wolfsburg side.
As the internet went into meltdown last week after Robert Lewandowski’s nine-minute spell of five-goal magic, it almost went unnoticed that it was Wolfsburg who were the victims.
Stunned by that 5-1 defeat to Bayern, Dieter Hecking’s side were then held to a 1-1 draw at home to Hannover at the weekend.
A first Champions League group game at Old Trafford for nearly two years is sure to bring an imposing atmosphere to the German visitors, and Man United’s in-form attackers should prove too much for the Bundesliga club.
Both Juventus and Sevilla have picked up just five points from six games in their respective leagues but claimed impressive wins in the opening round of Champions League group games.
Juve have seemingly lost their edge over the summer, but they remain tough to beat.
No side has scored more than two goals in any game featuring the Old Lady this season, and all bar one of their fixtures this term has seen two or three goals scored.
Sevilla have seen either two or three strikes netted in two of their last three games and it looks like a relatively low-scoring affair will ensue in Turin.
Since thrashing Shakthar Donetsk 4-0 in their opening Group game, Real Madrid have only scored three times in three subsequent matches – all taken by Karim Benzema, while Cristiano Ronaldo has scored from open play just once in his last four appearances.
Los Blancos were surprisingly held to a 0-0 draw at home to Malaga, and head to a Malmo side unafraid to ruffle up a few feathers.
Malmo have lost just one of their last 16 home games and while we all know they aren’t playing Real every week, that’s still solid home form.
Real have a derby clash with Atletico to contend with this coming Sunday, and that could also have an impact on how they go about their trip to Sweden.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
Fancy a flutter? Sign up today to claim up to £50 in free bets.
