Sporting CP v Man City Betting Tips

Punters are understandably wary when it comes to betting on Manchester City to win the Champions League. The Citizens currently have a 0% success rate in this competition although they wind up in the final last term before being defeated by Chelsea despite being regarded as favourites.

Previously to this, Pep Guardiola had struggled to steer them to the last eight stage of the top UEFA club competition, although there is plenty to recommend them as always. They have also been handed arguably the easiest possible opponent in the first knockout round when they come up against a Sporting team who are not likely to cause too many problems.

Can City Finally Land that Champions League Success?

Guardiola has two more bites of the cherry before deciding to call it a day with the champions of England. It could be interesting to see how he approaches some of the knockout games although it’s likely to be business as usual when his team come up against a Sporting side who managed to edge out Borussia Dortmund in their group.

One would imagine that Kevin de Bruyne is back up to speed by the time the Champions League comes around again, with the Belgian having a stop-start 2021/22 campaign, while the form of Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden means that we can expect a strong attacking approach from a team who are favourites to win the English Premier League title.

City have won three out of the previous four domestic titles and this is a strong basis to go forth and conquer in Europe, although they have everything to lose from clashing against a team that will have noted how they have previously faltered against the likes of Monaco and Lyon.

How Can Sporting Stun Manchester City?

Sporting Lisbon are into the last sixteen stage on merit. They won three and lost three of their group games, with the Portuguese therefore edging out Dortmund on their head-to-head record and they will hope to make home advantage count for something before the return leg.

The group stage of the UEFA Champions League began particularly badly after a 5-1 home reverse against Ajax which suggested they were out of their depth and that was followed by a 1-0 defeat in Dortmund. However, back-to-back victories over Besiktas put them back on the straight and narrow before an all-important 3-1 win over Borussia.

They did manage to score fourteen goals in the six games and it certainly needs to be the case that they will play on the front foot here. However, the twelve goals conceded also tells a story and we can see that they might get overrun against a team who are comfortable with outscoring the opposition.

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