UEFA Champions League: Real Madrid vs. Manchester City Preview, Odds, Prediction

Real Madrid and Manchester City meet in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semis at Santiago Bernabeu. The football fans can’t wait for this one to start and hope to see another fantastic spectacle following the one at Etihad seven days ago. Seven goals, a bunch of chances, and a fantastic pace marked that event. City comes to Spain with a 4-3 lead, which is an active result and gives hope to both sides.

Preview

Real Madrid (+225) has been playing very efficient football lately. Just one in the past ten games didn’t see three or more goals, and the latest five were all with more than 3.5 scores. Only the latest one during that stretch, against Espanyol,4-0, was with just one side netting.

Karim Benzema is in maybe the best form of his life, and the French veteran displays amazing football, which puts him among the top favorites for winning the Golden Ball.

Real’s form is on the rise these days, though, they know to collapse at home and apparently play better on the road than at Bernabeu. We’ve seen them losing to Barcelona 0-4 and Chelsea 2-3, barely avoiding the elimination from the UCL in the latter case. Regarding the efficiency at home, there is no difference at all, Real plays games with a high number of goals.

Manchester City (+100) won in Leeds on Saturday afternoon, which was their fourth consecutive victory, seventh in the last ten games. Apart from that, the Citizens have two draws and one loss, which was to Liverpool in the FA Cup semis.

In these last four triumphs, Man City scored 16 goals, three at least in each event, allowing four, and that pretty much says it all about the form of Guardiola’s crew. The last seven games this unit played were with three or more goals.

But check this out. The situation on the road is a bit different. Man City kept its net intact in eight of the previous nine outings, and the efficiency of those clashes variates. Them not allowing goals is the only constant thing here.

Latest News

Stones and Kyle Walker have injuries, but the strong centre back is expected to be ready for Madrid, while Walker’s situation is still unknown. Benjamin Mendy is out for a long time.

On the other side, Hazard is out, Luka Jovic too, while David Alaba might be in the protocol, but for the moment, the chances for that are slim.

Head to Head Games

As said, the first meeting saw seven goals and City’s 4-3 victory. The hosts quickly reached a 2-0 lead through De Bryne and Jesus, but Benzema cut the gap until the half. Foden raised to 3-1, and Vinicius responded before Bernardo Silva’s score for 4-2. In the end, Benzema set the final result from the penalty.

This was the fourth head-to-head meeting between these two sides with three or more goals and scores on both ends.

Prediction

The tradition and the circumstances force us to bet on a high number of goals. Over 2.5 is set at -170, but if we add both teams to score to that, the odds are reaching -140 which is an excellent bargain.

Pick: Both teams to score and over 2.5 goals -140

Here is the preview for Villarreal vs. Liverpool game.