On Wednesday, at 20:00, Manchester City and Marseille meet in the last stage of the UEFA Champions League groups. Only Aguero is absent from the hosts, while the French cannot count on Radonjic. Marseille have just finished a very long series of failures in the Champions League.
It was also natural to finally see a victory for Marseille. It was 2-1 with Olympiacos, coming back from 0-1 last week. But the success was not enough to raise Andre Villas-Boas’ students above the Greeks, in the group C ranking. Manchester City is already qualified, hand in hand with FC Porto, while Olympiacos and Marseille are tied, with 3 points each. . Thus, the last stage has an important stake for the guests on the Etihad. That’s why we are thinking of betting on a goal scored by the white-blue team!
At the end of last week, both teams achieved comfortable successes, with 2-0 in the domestic leagues. Manchester City beat Fulham at home, while Marseille triumphed at Nimes. Thus, both City and OM continued the good form of the championship, and the morale is at a good level in both camps. Obviously, City plays for pride, but it is possible that Pep Guardiola will spare his starters, because very difficult matches in the Premier League are coming. It is remarkable that in the last 9 matches of City it happened only once to score both teams, although the “citizens” were subscribers, in the past, to spectacular duels.
Without a home defeat of 10 European matches, Manchester City is without a goal in 4 of the last 6 games played on the Etihad. In the round, City won 3-0 on Velodrome, but the series of consecutive failures of the French in UCL stopped at 13 (record). With Olympiacos, OM’s return was possible due to two penalties, both converted by the star Payet (’55 and ’75). With only one victory in the last 15 European trips, Olympique needs a miracle on Wednesday night. At the same time, Marseille has won only one trip out of the last 12 in England.
At least one goal was scored in the first half in 32 of City’s last 33 matches;
Ferran Torres already has 3 goals in this edition of UCL, for Manchester City;
Marseille must get at least one point to hope for the UEL spring;
In 7 of the last 8 matches played by Manchester City, he scored at most one of the teams;
At least two goals have been scored in 7 of the last 8 matches played by Marseille;
PREDICTION: Over 2,5 goals @ 1,65
