Champions League: Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund Preview, Odds, Prediction

Manchester City faces Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. Unlike the previous matches when City played in Hungary, this one takes place at the Etihad Stadium. Pep Guardiola’s team is on fire, looking better than ever, and determined to win the UCL trophy this season. Their tonight’s rivals, Borussia Dortmund, isn’t that convincing over the past few weeks, posting some results that were, the least to say, surprising. The Millionaires have a very talented and young team, but still inexperienced for some bigger achievements.

Preview

Manchester City (-300) is coming from a routine win over Leicester on the road, 0-2, in which they’ve pretty much shown all the qualities they have. Even though Sky-Blues scored “just” two goals, they were keeping the ball in their feet and confidently handling matters on the field as if their opponents are some lower-tier team, not the third-placed crew in the English Premiership.

In the past four games, the Citizens scored two or more goals, not allowing the single one on the other side. Overall, they haven’t scored twice in just one event over the recent nine. But the focus here shouldn’t be on City’s offense but the backline. They have arguably the best defense in Europe, capable of stopping any team, and helping Ederson keep clean sheets.

Now, we’ll take a look at the last 10 matches City played at home. They have nine wins during that period, six of them without a goal conceded, and seven with two or more hits of their strikers, which is impressive. Just to mention that in the past 20 contests, Guardiola’s machinery has 17 wins, two draws and one loss.

Borussia Dortmund (+700) lost the latest match in Bundesliga to Eintracht Frankfurt at home, 1-2, following a pale and mediocre performance. The Eagles were far better than Haaland and the boys who were apparently thinking about City and the UCL challenges.

Overall, the Millionaires haven’t been playing well in recent time, posting just one win in the past five games, along with two draws and losses each. In all but one game during this mini-period, Borussia allowed two goals, showing that their defense is highly unstable, without the quality to provide consistent performances.

Their recent games’ efficiency was high, and two in the past 10 didn’t saw over 2.5 goals.

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City has all of its players at its disposal.

Sancho is out, as well as Witsel, Schmelzer, Zagaou, and Mukoko for the guests.

Head to Head Games

The last time these two sides met in one competitive event was in the 2012 UCL group stage edition. Dortmund won at home, 1-0, and the contest in Manchester finished without winners, 1-1.

Prediction

Apart from seeing City winning this one easily, anything else would be a major surprise. We recommend betting on the host’s convincing win, and choosing a -1.5 handicap, with the odds for this pick sitting at +100, which is great. Borussia’s defense can’t stop Eintracht and Koln, so ask yourself, what can they expect against Aguero, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Jesus, Sterling, etc?

Pick: City -1.5 at +100