Steaua Bucharest v Manchester City Betting Preview – UEFA Champions League, 16th August
Manchester City make their first foray into the UEFA Champions League under Pep Guardiola after having made a winning start in the Premier League under him on the weekend. This is the first leg of their Play Off Round and the Citizens are strong favourites to go out and put the win on the board out in Romania. However, the Romanians have a pretty decent W5 D2 L2 record at home against English sides. This will be the first ever meeting of the two clubs.
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Steaua Bucharest v Manchester City Betting Tips
So Steaua didn’t get the most comfortable of draws in this one in their quest to make it to the group stage of this season’s UEFA Champions League. Still, the Romanians have faced English opposition before and they haven’t done all too badly really. From their 18 previous contest with English sides they have posted a W5 D4 L9 (W5 D2 L2 at home – W0 D2 L7 in England) from those matches. So definitely the strength is in their home form here. Steaua are here because of their 3-1 aggregate win over Sparta Praha in the third qualifying round. This then will be the third time that they have contested the UEFA Champions League play offs and from their previous contests at this stage, they have ended level on aggregate. They beat Legia Warsaw on away goals in 2013/14 but lost out on penalties to Ludogorets Razgrad in the 2014/15 campaign.
Chelsea was the last English side that Steaua faced, which was in the group stage of the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League and they lost 5-0 on aggregate over the two matches. The Romanian club are just starting their new domestic season and they have taken three wins from three so far, not having conceded a goal in any of those. So you imagine that they will know that they are heavy underdogs and will set out to contain the Citizens for as long as they can.
So it could be frustrating evening for the Citizens who opened their Premier League life under Pep Guardiola with a somewhat flat 2-1 win over Sunderland at the Etihad. There wasn’t much in terms of creativity from the Citizens in the match to be honest, but weren’t at total full strength. The Citizens have faced Romanian opposition before, having faced Timisoara in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League play offs. For those who don’t remember that, the Citizens won 3-0 on aggregate. For Manchester City this will be their first appearance in the UEFA Champions League play off round.
City are going as heavy favourites and will be backed heavily for the win. But you will be looking at other betting options as well for this one such as under 2.5 goals going at 21/20. That’s actually quite tempting because City will be happy enough to come away with a clean sheet victory in the bag you would imagine and won’t be busting a gut in this one. City to win to nil in the match is a price of 5/4 and you have an option of Man City 1-0 or a Man City 2-0 correct score option which are both trading at a price of 6/1. Sergio Aguero heads up the anytime and first goalscorer market for the match. This is where the calm experience of Pep Guardiola should really show itself.
Steaua Bucharest v Manchester City Betting Odds
Man City2/5, Draw 4/1, Steaua Bucharest 11/2
Steaua Bucharest v Manchester City Predictions
The Citizens have to be pretty happy with this draw and they should ease their way through this contest. It is not expected to be the most spectacular of nights in terms of performance but there’s no need for that. It’s just turn up in Romania, get back on the plane and get home for the Premier League on the weekend. A professional job should see City win to nil.
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