Tag: Manuel Pellegrini

Champions League – Barcelona v Man City Preview

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Manchester City slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat at Burnley at the weekend to leave themselves trailing Chelsea by six points. The London club still have a game in hand, although neither side have been impressive in recent weeks. Arsenal, Man United and Liverpool have all gained ground and are now breathing down City’s neck in the race for Champions League qualification next season.

Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League by PSG on away goals last week and City could follow them out of the exit door when they face Barcelona on Wednesday night. City lost the home leg 2-1 but it could easily have been much worse. Gael Clichy’s red card left them a man short for the third successive time against the Spaniards and a third goal looked inevitable. Joe Hart saved Lionel Messi’s penalty but the Argentine should still have put away the rebound.

3-1 would have left City on the brink but they have been given a lifeline and will surely adopt a more positive approach this time. Rather like Chelsea against PSG, City appeared to be almost paralysed by fear and were spectators for much of the game as Barcelona ran rings around them. If the same City turns up on Wednesday, they will surely be well beaten. The home side have Suarez, Messi and Neymar in their line-up, all eager to get on the score sheet.

With the possible exceptions of Aguero and Silva, City’s star players have fallen short in recent months and they are running out of opportunities. I fear that City’s season could get worse before it starts to get better.

The night’s other tie looks a good deal less one-sided with Juventus holding a 2-1 lead against Borussia Dortmund. The Italians were not particularly impressive in Turin and the Germans grabbed a vital away goal. They know that a 1-0 win would be sufficient to go into the last eight but I cannot quite see them holding out for 90 minutes.

Former Premiership striker Carlos Tevez has scored 21 goals this season and Paul Pogba is apparently being pursued by Manchester United and Chelsea. They will miss the experience of Andrea Pirlo in midfield due to injury but could just sneak a draw and go through.

Borussia Dortmund v Juventus DRAW @5-2 Boylesports

Borussia Dortmund 1 Juventus 1 @6-1 Paddy Power

Barcelona 3 Man City 0 @21-2 BetVictor

Lionel Messi to score and Barcelona win @4-5 SkyBet

Luis Suarez to score and Barcelona win @6-4 Ladbrokes

Man City face Champions League exit

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

With two games remaining, Manchester City are bottom of group E and preparing for the visit of Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.

That is certainly not the scenario that Manuel Pellegrini would have had in mind when the draw was made. While most pundits would have made Bayern strong favourites to win the group, City were expected to beat Roma and CSKA Moscow in the battle for second place.

City were held to a draw by Roma in their opening group game before suffering a 1-0 defeat in Munich thanks to a late goal by Boateng. The real damage was done when they forfeited a two-goal lead in Moscow. They have struggled to achieve any consistency since that night in October, slumping to a home defeat against CSKA in the return fixture.

A hard-fought 2-1 win over Swansea at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday at least kept them within a respectable distance of Chelsea in the Premier League. Whether they showed enough to seriously worry Bayern Munich on Tuesday is open to question. The gulf between Premiership football and Champions League football is something that City are yet to cross. Two-time EPL winners but only once have they managed to go beyond the group stages in Europe and it is looking ominous again this season.

A full-strength City at their best would certainly have high expectations against a Bayern side that may be tempted to take their foot off the pedal with the group already won. However, City go into this match in patchy form and without Yaya Toure, David Silva and Fernandinho. There has been speculation that all is not well with Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic but Pellegrini insists that both are fit to start on Tuesday night.

Bayern have won their first four matches, scoring eleven goals and conceding just one. They will the group irrespective of what happens in their final group games. Their recent record is not unlike Chelsea’s. They are unbeaten in 18 matches and scored seven against Roma earlier in the tournament. They have strikers of the calibre of Lewandowski, Robben and Muller available against a City defence that is far from secure.

Man City have no choice but to attack and that could play into the hands of the visitors. It should be an entertaining night but I can’t see Bayern coming away with less than a draw.

Correct score 1-1 @7-1 BetVictor

Correct score 2-2 @14-1 William Hill