Matchday 4 of the Uefa Champions League concludes on Wednesday night when our focus is on including Manchester City v Dortmund and Newcastle v Atheltic Bilbao
Man City v Dortmund
City are unbeaten with 2 wins and 1 draw and they finished Matchday 3 in seventh position. They started with a 2-0 home win over Napoli before a 2-2 draw at Monaco and last time out they came away from Villarreal with a 2-0 victory. Haaland has scored 4 of those 6 City goals in this competition.
In the EPL City’s 3-1 home win over Bournemouth on Saturday saw them finish the round in second place, 6 points off the pace being set by Arsenal and after this they will host Liverpool on Sunday.
Dortmund have an identical record to City and are 1 place better off due to superior goal difference. They started with a 4-4 draw away to Juve where they conceded twice in injury time to throw away a 4-2 lead. That set the trend for high scoring games with Dortmund subsequently following up with a 4-1 home win over Bilbao and most recently they came away from Copenhagen with a 4-2 victory.
In the Bundesliga Dortmund are third with a record of 6 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat. They have won 3 away from home and their only defeat came at Bayern Munich (2-1).
The Verdict
The avalanche of goals in Dortmund UCL matches is an interesting stat and City striker Haaland is in the sort of form that could see another high scoring encounter. However the win is of prime importance as that would see either team very handily placed in the top 8 at the halfway stage of the league phase. I’m going with Foden any time.
Bets: Anytime goalscorer Phil Foden at 9/4 with Sportingbet
Note prices quoted are subject to change
Newcastle v Bilbao
Newcastle have recovered from losing their opening CL match at home to Barcelona (2-1) with a 4-0 win away to Union SG and a 3-0 home victory over Benfica who played a chunk of the game with 10 men. Anthony Gordon has scored 4 UCL goals and Harvey Barnes has 3.
In the EPL Newcastle are still without an away win and they threw in a dismal performance in a 3-1 defeat at West Ham on Sunday. Their recent home form is much more positive but they remain below half way in the standings with 12 points from 10 games.
Bilbao lost 2-0 at home to Arsenal on Matchday 1 before they crashed 4-1 at Dortmund. They put themselves on the board in Matchday 3 with a 3-1 home win over Qarabag but they are 21st in the standings and with ground to make up if they are to threaten a place in the knockout rounds.
Bilbao can be found in mid table in the La Liga standings. They have taken just 4 points from 5 away fixtures and they lost 3-2 away to Real Sociedad last weekend.
The Verdict
The only Bilbao game I have seen this season was their home defeat to Arsenal. They looked pretty decent to me in that match but their subsequent results in La Liga are no better than average. Newcastle need to put a poor display at West Ham behind them, the return to St. James Park is a big plus and Anthony Gordon, who has a point to prove after being subbed at half time at West Ham is taken to continue his UCL scoring streak.
Bets: Anytime goalscorer Anthony Gordon at 21/10 with Sportingbet
Note prices quoted are subject to change