The Uefa Champions League Round of 16 concludes this week and arguably the pick of the remaining matches in this round is the second leg of Manchester City's clash with Real Madrid on Friday.
The first leg of this tie was staged in Madrid back on the 26th February. Isco gave Real the lead on the hour mark but City hit back with goals from Jesus (78) and a de Bruyne penalty (83) to seal a 2-1 advantage. The second leg will be staged in Manchester and the draw for the quarter finals has already been made. Those last 8 ties and the semi's and final will take place in Portugal, determined over 1 leg and whoever goes through here will face either Lyon or Juventus.
Let's recap on how these teams fared earlier in the competition and in their domestic leagues.
Manchester City
City topped their UCL group, unbeaten with 4 wins and 2 draws. Atalanta were runners up and Shakhtar and Dinamo Zagreb missed out. Away from home City beat Shakhtar 3-0 and Zagreb 4-1 but they were held to a 1-1 draw by Atalanta.
In the Premier League City finished a distant second to Liverpool, 18 points adrift. They did win the League Cup final against Aston Villa but crashed out of the FA Cup to Arsenal at the semi final stage.
City are favourites in the outright betting to win the Champions League this season,trading at around 33/10. In the Round of 16 last season they crushed Schalke 10-2 over the 2 legs but went out to Spurs in the following round.
Real Madrid
Real Madrid finished as runners up to PSG in the group stage with a record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat, Club Brugge were a distant third and Galatasaray were fourth. Results at home included 2-2 draws with Brugge and PSG either side of a 6-0 demolition of Galatasaray and the only defeat came at PSG, 3-0 on Matchday 1.
In La Liga Real Madrid returned from lockdown to reel off 10 successive league wins to seal the title before a draw on the final day in what was a dead rubber. They finished 5 points clear of Barcelona and 17 in front of Atletico and Sevilla.
In the betting to be crowned Uefa Champions this season Real are trading in the region of 22/1. Real made a surprise exit from he Round of 16 last season, they led Ajax after a 2-1 first leg win in Amsterdam but lost the return in Madrid 4-1 on the night to go out 5-3 on aggregate.
Recent Head to Head
Aside from the first leg of this tie. the previous meeting between the sides came in the 2015/16 semi finals when Real went through 1-0 on aggregate.
The Betting
City can be backed at around 7/10 to win the second leg with the draw available at 7/2 and if you shop around you might find 100/30 against a win for Real in regulation time.
As far as the goals markets are concerned it's 5/10 for both sides to find the net in 90 minutes and the same price for a game of 3 goals or more in total.
Verdict:
Other than a dead rubber on the final day of the La Liga season when the title was already assured, Real haven't put a foot wrong wince returning to action. The
same cannot be said of City and I would suggest there is plenty of scope for a few more twists and turns in this tie.
I fancy Real to throw plenty at City, not necessarily from kick enough but early enough to facilitate a game of 4 goals although my main interest is de Bruyne to score anytime with a spot kick, free kick or open play all distinct possibilities. .
Bets:
Anytime goalscorer de Bruyne 2/1
Total goals, over 3.5 at 23/20
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