The march towards Champions League glory starts here, RB Leipzig takes on heavyweights Manchester City, and as we saw in previous meetings between the two, both teams are capable of causing chaos. Last season’s group stage offered two very entertaining matches with plenty of goals and talking points, so we are expecting nothing less from the upcoming encounters in the round of 16.
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RB LEIPZIG
The German team are currently in third place in the Bundesliga, just six points behind Bayern Munich, and a game against the leaders is on the horizon. RB Leipzig has sealed a very impressive second-place finish in their respective group in the Champions League. The season didn’t start with all the glamour and hope that they have now; Domenico Tedesco was sacked hours after their Champions League horror show against Shakhtar Donetsk, just a few months after the Italian guided them to the first major silverware in the club’s history. Now under the tutelage of Marco Rose, RB Leipzig are back at their best, beating Real Madrid 3-2 at home, giving them the confidence and belief that they are capable of upsetting a big name in this competition.
Up against Manchester City, who now have the services of a well-known player in Germany – a certain Erling Haaland, who tormented Leipzig during his time at Dortmund. Manchester City should also be wary of Leipzig’s prolific Christopher Nkunku, who will be playing Premier League football from next season with Chelsea. At the time of writing, the French winger has scored 15 goals in all competitions, and he will have fond memories of playing against City as he bagged a hat-trick at the Etihad—not many players could say that these days.
A very ambitious yet not impossible scenario of RB Leipzig making it through to the next round is priced at 9/2 (5.50), with RB Leipzig winning their home game valued at 26/7 (4.70). LV BET is also pricing a victory for the German team and over 2.50 goals in the match at 5/1 (6.00).
MANCHESTER CITY
The team that is favoured to win the competition, Manchester City, who is at 9/5 (2.80), has assembled all the pieces and hopes to get the job done this year. As the blue half of Manchester well knows, the road to the Champions League final is not easy, even for a team like Manchester City. Erling Haaland has come in and gave Pep Guardiola that well-needed striker’s instinct to produce the spectacular in games as he did against Borussia Dortmund.
In the Premier League, City has dropped points that, in previous years, were no problem, and this allowed Arsenal to extend their lead at the top. Pep Guardiola’s focus might be European success this season, a title that has eluded him in previous years, coming so close in the 2020/21 season. The Spanish coach sometimes overthinks the games in the Champions League, leading to him changing tactics and/or players that might render his team vulnerable and, especially up against RB Leipzig, who have given them trouble in the past, this could very much be a banana skin.
Manchester City are well poised to go through to the next round on paper as we are pricing them at 1/7 (1.14), and both teams to score in the match at 5/9 (1.55). A game packed with goals, with both teams scoring in both halves being valued at 10/1 (11.00).
LV BET
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*Odds subject to change. Odds correct at time of publishing