Barcelona v Manchester City Predictions & Betting Odds – 19th October 2016

Catalans too strong for Pep's City

Barcelona
Barcelona © GEPA pictures

Barcelona v Manchester City Betting Preview – UEFA Champions League 19th October

What a game we could have in store here. Pep Guardiola’s takes his Manchester City troops to the Nou Camp to face his former side. The Citizens are heavy underdogs for the game and this could be the defining match in the race for the top spot in the group. Barcelona hold a two point advantage over City with the Citizens having dropped points at Parkhead against Celtic last time out. Will Barcelona hand them a stern lesson, or can Guardian’s new charges pull off the unexpected and take a tremendous three points away from the Catalans. This is a mouth watering clash between two brilliant sides. Which will prevail?

Take the chance to land some extra returns on your accumulators thanks to Bet365’s 100% Euro Soccer bonus. Just land a winning acca of three or more selections on selected competitions and markets and earn up to a 100% win bonus! This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the Premier League, Serie A, Primera Liga, Bundesliga 1 or Champions League. Register an account with the bookmaker and earn a 100% matched deposit bonus from them as well.

Barcelona v Manchester City 2016 Infographic

Barcelona v Manchester City Betting Tips

The highlight of the UEFA Champions League fixtures this week and just what the competition thrives on. This is a high profile clash and it is given extra hype because it is the return of Pep Guardiola to the Nou Camp. Their first meeting between these two happened back in the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League round of sixteen, and the Spaniards won that 4-1 on aggregate. The two met the very following season in the same stage and the Catalans won out 3-1 on aggregate on that occasion, and they have seen City get a man sent off in three of those four clashes with the Premier League side. Barcelona have won both of their group stage matches so far heading into this one, smashing Celtic 7-0 and then edging Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 in Germany. So they are the front runners in the group and they bumped into an English side last season in the round of 16, that being Arsenal who they bat 5-1 on aggregate. Both teams to score in this one is a price of 8/15.

Barcelona hold a W18 D11 L2 record at home against English sides, which is pretty strong. You can likely go and look over 3.5 goals in this one instead of the usual 2.5 goal line because it would be a huge surprise if this finished under 2.5 goals so you may as well push a little further. There’s a wealth of attacking power on display. Over 3.5 goals will return a price of 11/10 on the game. Lionel Messi returned from injury on the weekend in La Liga and scored in a win. Messi Neymar are 8/11 options in the anytime goalscorer market, while Luis Suarez is in at a price of 4/9. They are powerful in front of goal and even defender Gerard Pique is in scoring form, with three goals in his last three games and he is a 5/1 poke to net. Barcelona have taken just 13 points from their 21 available in La Liga this season, their worst start for some time. But they have still scored 40 goals in 12 games in all competitions at an average of 3.3 per game.

So can Manchester City land what would be a huge marker by winning at the Nou Camp? The Citizens have gone off the boil just a little bit without a win in their last three. Their ten match winning streak in all competitions came to an end with a 3-3 draw with Celtic at Parkhead on Match Day Two in the Champions League. City have conceded six goals in their last three games which is a huge concern for them in taking on Barcelona’s front three. But City have fired off seven goals in two Champions League games this season. Last season they went to Spain twice, carding a 3-1 win at Sevilla in the group stage and then losing 1-0 at Real Madrid in the semi finals, a game in which they had no intention of playing attack in. They’ll be setting up a lot differently under Pep Guardiola to what they did then and for Pep, this is second return to the Nou Camp after leaving.

Guardiola was there with Bayern Munich in the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League semi final and lost 3-0. City played out a 1-1 draw with Everton in the Premier League on the weekend at Goodison Park and were dominant and brilliant, but they couldn’t get a winner, missing two spot kicks as well, one of them from Sergio Aguero who isn’t having a great time of things from the spot. Aguero actually missed one against Barcelona in the 2014/15 clash against Barcelona at the Nou Camp but he is running at a price of 13/8 in the anytime goalscorer market to make a breakthrough for City, with Kelechi Iheanacho at 7/4 and Kevin De Bruyne at 11/5. The concern for City is the lack of clean sheets that they have taken, so if you picture them being likely to concede you have to ask yourself whether or not they can match Barcelona going forward.

Barcelona v Manchester City Betting Odds

Barcelona 1/2, Draw 10/3, Man City 5/1

Barcelona v Manchester City Predictions

This should be pretty entertaining. Pep Guardiola is trying to get Manchester City to where Barcelona are, but they aren’t there yet. Pep is still moulding the side into his shape and that’s going to make more time. City have conceded far more than they should have done this season, so it’s worth siding with Barcelona to take the win but it is also worth expecting both sides to get on the scoresheet.

Find the latest results, League Table, Top Scorer and more on our football statistics on online-betting.me.uk (just choose your country & your preferred topic)