The Champions League quarterfinals officially get underway on Tuesday with one of the most intriguing ties of the lot as Erling Haaland and Manchester City head to Bavaria to lock horns with Bayern Munich in the first leg. The kick-off is scheduled for 3 PM ET at the Allianz Arena. The Premier League giants soared through the Round of 16, thrashing RB Leipzig 8-1 on aggregate. Munich meanwhile eliminated a star-studded PSG side. Keep reading for the Manchester City vs Bayern prediction.
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The Cityzens is a clear favorite here with moneyline odds of -135 at Bovada online sportsbook. Bayern comes back at +330, despite playing on home soil. In six meetings between the two sides, they’ve both won three games apiece. The last time they went toe to toe in Europe’s most prized competition was back in the 2014-15 group stages.
City was handed a real boost over the weekend, with Arsenal collecting just one point in a draw with Liverpool. Since they have a game in hand, Pep Guardiola’s side is very much in the title race again, especially because the Gunners still need to travel to the Etihad later this month. That means two trophies remain a possibility for the Sky Blues, who are in blistering form at the moment.
It’s 12 matches unbeaten for City, with their last defeat coming way back on February 5th at Tottenham. Since then, Guardiola’s group has dropped just four points across all competitions and has won eight in a row. During those eight games, the Citizens just three times and bagged 31 goals. Saturday turned out to be a dominating 4-1 win over Southampton, with Haaland netting a brace as he reached the 30-goal mark in the Premier League. He’s now up to 44 goals in all competitions and will undoubtedly need to be firing on all cylinders Tuesday against a former rival from his time at Borussia Dortmund.
Bayern shocked the football world and sacked boss Julian Nagelsmann at the end of last month and ultimately hired former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel as his replacement. So far, the German has guided the Bavarians to two wins in three, but that one defeat hurt as they were eliminated by Freiburg in the DFB-Pokal.
However, Munich got revenge for the loss on the weekend, beating Freiburg 1-0 in Bundesliga action. Matthijs de Ligt’s 51st-minute goal proved to be enough to seal the three points, keeping Bayern two points clear at the top of the table above Dortmund.
When it comes to the Champions League, the 2020 winners took care of PSG 3-0 across two legs earlier in the year in the last 16. In fact, they’ve yet to drop a single point in the current UCL campaign, also going 6-0-0 in the group stages. Although Bayern is flying high in the competition though, they know their toughest test yet comes on Tuesday.
The city is looking at a near full-strength squad here, except Phil Foden. As for Bayern, their only absentee is Erik Choupo-Moting, who is dealing with a knee issue.
This has the makings of a legendary clash. Two world-class clubs are going head to head on the biggest stage. To me, though, City is the better side at the moment, and I do think they will carry that momentum into Germany and grab a huge away victory before heading back to Manchester for the reverse fixture. Lock in the moneyline.
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