Manchester City will host Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium in an 8pm BST kick-off on Wednesday evening for the 2nd leg of the Champions League Semi-Final. The first leg ended 1-1 out in Spain. It was a pleasing result for Pep Guardiola’s men who now look to be favourites to qualify for the Final being at the home ground that they’ve not lost at since November. Real Madrid will have other ideas though. My full preview of the match with my Champions League betting tips for this game is below.
City on course to make history
Manchester United became the first team to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble back in 1999. Manchester City would be the 8th team to do a major treble but, ironically, it would be the 2nd time that Guardiola has managed it. After he accomplished the same feat for Barcelona back in 2009. Whilst City have already completed a treble in English Football, it was a domestic one, back in 2019. This was when they won the Premier League, FA Cup and EFL Cup. At one point it looked like they had the quadruple in their sights but, alas, it was not to be.
If City are going to win that elusive domestic and European treble then they’ll need to get a result at the Etihad on Wednesday. They certainly have the forum and the players to achieve this. In Europe, at home, they’ve beat Bayern Munich 3-0 and RB Leipzig 7-0 in their last two home matches in this competition. Not to mention a 3-1 win over Sevilla, a 5-0 thrashing of FC Copenhagen, and a 2-1 win over Dortmund earlier in the competition.
To summarise, they have an awesome home record both in the league and in Europe and that bodes well coming into this match.
Real facing an uphill task
Real Madrid will know that they needed a win in the first leg and some kind of advantage going to the Etihad. Whilst Manchester City bossed the first part of the match in the first leg, Real Madrid was far more clinical and at times looked like they could really get ahead in the tie. They have the firepower to win any match but their away record isn’t as potent as their home record.
Whilst Real Madrid beat both Chelsea and Liverpool away from home with ease (2-0 and 5-2 respectively), if we look back to the group stage of the Champions League then we’ll see a 3-2 loss to RB Leipzig away and also a 1-1 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk. With this all being said, Real Madrid have incredible forward players and I would be surprised if we didn’t see a few goals here.
One statistic that is key for Real is that they’ve only won and progressed through to the next round twice in nine attempts when they’ve not won the first leg at home.
Head-to-Head Meetings
We know all about the head-to-head between the two from the first leg preview. They’ve played 9 times in the Champions League with Manchester City having 3 wins and Real Madrid boasting 3 wins. There have also been 3 draws. It’s finely balanced.
Manchester City vs Real Madrid Betting Tips
As mentioned, I would be surprised if we didn’t see both teams scoring here. If we look back at previous matches between the pair we tend to see goals. I have to make Manchester City favourites here and so the 2/1 on City winning the match but both teams scoring looks like a good play. My other tip is for Real Madrid to get the most cards. They got 2 each last time around but Real will likely be on the defensive for at least the first 30 minutes in my eyes.
If City are leading with the last 10-15 minutes to go then it’s likely they’ll be holding the ball and that can draw fouls. Manchester City also have a good disciplinary record and don’t actually get a lot of yellow cards.
Man City to Win and BTTS @ 2/1 with Bet365
Real Madrid to Receive the Most Cards @ 5/6 with Paddy Power
All odds are accurate at the time of writing.
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