By Antony Jordan
This week sees the final four matches from the first leg stage of the Champions League’s first knockout round. Last week brought excitement and goals and with Tuesday’s two clashes featuring some of the biggest names in European football are we likely to see the same thing happening?
We preview the clashes of Manchester City v Monaco and Bayer Leverkusen v Atlético Madrid with online sportsbook Bet365.com to see if we’ll receive the same treatment in the first pair of clashes this week.
Man City v Monaco: 1.60 – 4.20 – 5.50
The sides sitting second in the EPL and top of France’s Ligue 1 tables meet for the first time this Tuesday evening and despite the fact that the home team are the heavy odds on favourites to win this match they will be wary of a side that leads all others in France. The reason for this is that second placed side in Ligue 1, PSG, saw off Barcelona 4-0 last week to put one foot into the Quarter Finals despite their being another 90 minutes of football yet to play. City have emerged from a tough period to find themselves as the closest challengers to the runaway EPL leaders Chelsea as they come into this game, but will this allow them to pass this stage for a second season in succession following their reaching of the Semi Finals last time around?
City have impressed at The Etihad in Europe this time around as they defeated Borussia Monchengladbach and Barcelona here in the group stage as well as drawing with Celtic as the secured second spot behind the Spaniards and with them having won four and drawn one of their five clashes on home soil in all competitions since that final group stage match with the Scottish team they will believe that they can beat anyone on this ground. They did lose new signing Gabriel Jesus to injury recently, but with Sergio Aguero a world class replacement up front City have plenty to be optimistic about.
However, Monaco top their league by three points as they arrive in England for the second time this season following their 2-1 win at Wembley Stadium against Tottenham in the group stages earlier in this campaign. They also defeated the EPL team 2-1 in France as well and it is almost two years since they have been defeated by an English team in this competition. They too will be confident about their chances and with just one defeat away from home in all competitions since October – and that a dead rubber clash with Bayer Leverkusen in the group stage where they were already top of the group – they have performed excellently on their travels too.
We feel that this match could go either way as both of these two sides have the capabilities to take all three points on the blue half of Manchester this Tuesday evening so we are avoiding the outright markets for this clash. However, both teams have scored and conceded goals in Europe this season so our money is on the goals market.
Back Both Teams to Score – Yes AND Over 2.5 goals in this Man City v Monaco game at odds of 2.10 in the Bet365 Sportsbook!
Leverkusen v Atlético: 3.40 – 3.25 – 2.37
These two sides last clashed two years ago at the last 16 stage of the Champions League and they could not be separated despite playing for three and a half hours over the two legs. Leverkusen triumphed on home soil with a 1-0 victory before Atlético repeated this in the Spanish capital three weeks later. Only 50% of the ten penalties in the shootout hit the back of the net with the Spaniards triumphing 3-2 to move into the final eight stage where they were knockout out by Real Madrid and now with both teams off the pace in their respective leagues they will be desperate for an advantage at the halfway point of the. Who’ll claim it though?
The Germans are eighth in the Bundesliga coming into this clash, but they are unbeaten in Europe this season with four draws and two wins seeing them follow Monaco out of Group E ahead of Tottenham. They have won back to back clashes in the league and have four wins in their last five on home soil so they will be confident of a win in this match, but are they consistent enough?
That is something that can never be levelled at Atlético and even now they have lost just one of their last ten matches in all competitions and that came at the hands of Barcelona. Their problem this season has not been killing off games though and they have drawn four of their last eight clashes and all of these have come on the road in their last five road trips. They are still unbeaten away from home in 2017 with four draws and three wins to their name and we can see this record remaining unbeaten this week.
However, we feel that Diego Simeone will be happy with a draw in Germany, especially after their last visit here, and with them drawing four of their last five away games as well as facing a very good at home Leverkusen side we are backing the sides to share the spoils in this first leg of their tie.