On Saturday, from 17:30, Manchester City receives the visit of Leicester, in the 18th round of the Premier League, in the last match of the day in the English Championship.
Manchester City comes after an easy qualification in the English League Cup, where the “citizens” had without too much modest emotion Oxford United. Leicester, on the other hand, come after a tough duel with Everton, awarded at Goodison Park the penalties, in the same phase of the competition. Leicester led with goals from Maddison (’26) and Evans (’29), but Davies (’70) and Baines (’90 +2) made the same for ‘caramels’. Leicester won 4-2 in the away matches and managed to stay in the trophy race.
Leicester is the revelation of this season in the Premier League, and Brendan Rodgers’ team is in second place in the championship, ahead of the title champion. On Saturday, City will not be able to bet on Laporte, Sane, Aguero, Silva and Stones, injured, while the “foxes” are without James. Overall, both teams have a lot of quality and can offer us a duel with goals.
Leicester are in second place with 39 points (40-11), four more than Manchester City, but far from Liverpool. Manchester City is 3rd, with 35 points (goal 47-19), and Pep Guardiola knows that Etihad fans expect success in front of the blue-and-white. After the victories with Burnley (4-1), Dinamo Zagreb (4-1 in UCL), Arsenal (3-0) and Oxford United (3-1), the “citizens” have every reason to be optimistic here. But Leicester is a quality team, which has won 4 of the last 5 officially contested matches.
We note that the “foxes” have scored in 4 of the previous 5 direct duels, from 2017 until today, the only “failure” taking place just last season, when City won by 1-0 at home. This time, Gray, Vardy, Maddison and Tielemans deliver a high-quality attack, while the defending champion is far from tall. The most logical thing would be to watch a spectacular match, knowing that City has won 14 of the last 17 home games, where they recently lost the pride derby with Manchester United.
PROBABLE TEAMS IN MANCHESTER CITY – LEICESTER
Man City: Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Fernandinho, Mendy; De Bruyne, Rodri, D Silva; Bernard, Jesus, Sterling
Leicester: Schmeichel; Pereira, Soyuncu, Evans, Chilwell; Perez, Tielemans, Ndidi, Maddison, Barnes; Vardy
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / YES @ 1,60
