Will Man City Make a Memorable Comeback or Will the Reds Prevail?

This week there are four crucial Champions League quarter final second leg matches taking place across Europe, but for British football fans, the most interesting match up comes at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester where Manchester City host Liverpool with the home team trailing 3-0 from a humbling first leg defeat at Anfield last Wednesday night.

Goals from Mo Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mane handed Liverpool a 3-0 lead at half time, which the home side then defended well in the second half against City who failed to make many chances against a much-improved Liverpool back line.

However, the Reds will be very wary of what can happen at the Etihad Stadium after they went down to a 5-0 defeat against City earlier in the season, although they did play the majority of that game with 10-men after Sadio Mane was sent off for a challenge on goalkeeper Ederson. A fact which City ruthlessly exploited especially in the second half.

This promises to be a massive Champions League clash and it will certainly attract plenty of betting. Why not join in by signing up with Coral Sport today and get some of the best football betting on offer for the rest of the season and the World Cup in the summer?  Deposit just £5 with their Standard Opening Bonus offer and you will receive £20 worth of free bets as a welcome to the site.

Let’s now take a closer look at how things could unfold in Tuesday night’s big game in Manchester with our special preview:

Manchester City v Liverpool – Preview

Manchester City Story so Far

• Qualified as winners of Group F (15 points, 14 goals scored 5 conceded)
• Beat FC Basel In the Round of 16 (4-0, 1-2 – 5-2 on aggregate)
• Have never reached the Champions League Final
• Current Form – W L W W L L
• Beat Liverpool 5-0 at the Etihad back in September 2017

Predicted Line Up (4-3-3) – Ederson, Walker, Laporte, Otamendi, Delph, De Bruyne, Silva, Fernandinho, Sane, Jesus, Sterling

Possible changes include Sergio Aguero (who has a great scoring record against Liverpool) returning for Jesus if he is fully fit, as well as Bernardo Silva coming in for Sterling. Gundogan could also start in place of Fernandinho. City could be without John Stones through injury, though he may well recover in time for a place on the bench.

Liverpool Story so Far

• Qualified as Winners of Group E (12 Points, 23 goals scored, 6 conceded)
• Beat FC Porto in the Round of 16 (4-0, 0-0, 4-0 on aggregate)
• Have won the Champions League five times in their history (1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2003)
• Current Form – D L W W W D
• Beat City 4-3 at Anfield in the Premier League and then also 3-0 in the first leg of this tie.

Predicted Line Up (4-3-3) – Karius, Alexander Arnold, Robertson, Van Dijk, Lovren, Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Milner, Mane, Firmino, Salah

Liverpool have several players out injured (Lallana, Gomez, Matip and Can) who could have started in this game and with Salah recovering from a small knock against City in the first leg, the Reds are a little below strength here. Add to that Henderson being suspended and this could be a tough night for the Reds. If Can is fit, he could come into midfield for Wijnaldum.

Match Preview

So how do we see this game going? Well given that they are 3-0 down, it will be important for City to make a good start, very much as they did in the Manchester derby at the weekend. However, as United showed in that game, if you can attack City at pace and close them down, then you stand a chance against them and that is precisely what Liverpool did in the first leg at Anfield, particularly in the first half.

In this game, I don’t think the first goal will be crucial in this match but I think the second goal will be the most important one. If City can get to 2-0, then I think Liverpool will be under huge pressure for the rest of the game, but if Liverpool can grab a goal to make it 1-1, or even if they grab the opening goal on the night, I think that will utterly deflate City and the home support.

City’s problem is not going to be creating chances or scoring goals in my view, instead it may well be keeping Liverpool out at the other end, with Mo Salah on fire in front of goal and both Roberto Firmino and Mohammed Salah coming into some fine goalscoring form too.

It’s also important to note that since the defeat against City, Liverpool have integrated both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Virgil Van Dijk into the team and with Karius now a clear first choice in goal and exhibiting his best form of the season, they are likely to be not quite so fragile defensively as they were when the teams met in the Premier League earlier in the season.

This is a game that I expect City to win, but I think Liverpool will score at least one goal and as such, I think that makes City’s chances of qualifying for the semifinals very very slim indeed. While I can see City perhaps getting three goals, I can see Liverpool getting one or maybe two in reply and that will be more than enough for the Anfield side to go through.

Top Tips

• City to win and both teams to score – 7/5 with Coral Sport
• Sadio Mane anytime goalscorer – 3/1 with Coral
• Correct Score – Man City to win 3-2 – 16/1 wiuth Coral

Other big Champions League clashes

It is worth noting that there are three other massive Champions League clashes taking place this week too and these games (together with the odds on each result) are outlined below:

• AS Roma (19/5) v Barcelona (4/6) (16/5 the draw)
• Bayern Munich (1/5) v Sevilla (14/1) (11/2 the draw)
• Real Madrid (8/13) v Juventus (21/5) (3/1 the draw)

Personally, I’d back the draw in the AS Roma v Barcelona clash plus home wins for both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the matches being played on Wednesday night.

Back City to win along with the three results listed above and you can back them at odds of 11.43/1 with Coral Sport, meaning a £10 bet would return £114.30.  However you would also get a free bet of £11.43 with the Coral 4+ Acca Boost promotion.