Man City vs Shakhtar Donetsk
UEFA Champions League. Kick-Off 8.00pm. Live on BT Sport
MANCHESTER City are purring at the moment. Since their surpise defeat at the hands of Lyon on Matchday 1 Pep Guardiola's men have won nine and drawn one. In the process they've 29 goals and conceded just two. You certainly wouldn't want to be visiting them with a record of zero wins in seven matches in England, as per Shakthar Donetsk.
City won comfortably when the two sides met a couple of weeks ago. The 3-0 win took them to the top of Group F and a win tonight could see them qualify for the knock-out stages if Lyon also defeat Hoffenheim.
Domestically Shakhtar are untouchable. They're eight points clear of their nearest challenger in the Ukrainian Premier League and have scored a whopping 36 goals in their opening 14 matches. They're unbeaten in six away matches and have averaged 3.33 goals per game in those.
But they've usually struggled to turn that domestic dominance in to European success, especially on the road. And things won't change tonight.
Man City are 1/9 to win the three points and if you've a spare £9,000 down the back of your sofa it looks a surefire way of making a quick grand. Not that I'd advise it!
Everything points to a big win for City. They're 1.910 -2.5 on the Asian Handicap, which is a better price that the 4/5 -2 on the straight handicap for the exact same bet. To score 3 or more City are a paltry 1/2, and four or more is 5/4. One more goal and it jumps to 3/1.
City have scored five or more on four occasions already this season. In three of those matches they'd scored three in the first half, so early goals could be the way to profit. Back over 1.5 first half goals at 5/6.
Recommended Bets
- Over 1.5 first half goals 5/6 (bet365)
- Man City to score over 4.5 goals 3/1 (bet365)
- Bonkers Bet: Man City 5 Shakhtar 1 20/1 (bet365)
