Man City v Dortmund – Preview, Predictions and Best Bets

Man City host Dortmund at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night in the UEFA Champions League quarter finals. Pep Guardiola is looking to win his first Champions League trophy since 2011 and has been knocked out by Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon as Man City manager. Dortmund are in poor domestic form but reached this stage thanks to British-born Erling Haaland scoring four goals against Sevilla in the last round.

Man City Form

Guardiola has City in amazing form with 30 wins and 23 clean sheets in their last 33 matches. City have won seven of their eight Champions League matches with season, conceding just one goal. A 4-0 aggregate victory against Borussia Monchengladbach got them to this stage.

At home, City have won 11 of their last 12 matches with the sole defeat coming against Man Utd to end a 21-match winning run in all competitions. Their last match saw a 2-0 win away at Leicester as Benjamin Mendy and Gabriel Jesus were on target. That victory made it 15 consecutive wins on the road for City.

Man City Team News

City have no injuries or suspensions to deal with. Against Leicester, Guardiola rested his international players who had only had one day of training back at the club. The likes of Raheem Sterling, John Stones, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernado Silva and Joao Cancelo were all on the bench and the five of them should all start.

Sergio Aguero is likely to drop down to the bench so it will either be a false nine like Kevin De Bruyne or Gabriel Jesus leading the line. Rodri is expected to get the nod over Fernandinho in the midfield holding role.

Man City Motivation

City are desperate to win the Champions League and can give full focus to this competition with the Premier League title all but wrapped up.

Guardiola’ side will look to dominate possession and to control counters and the space behind their backline against the threat of Erling Haaland. Anything less than a convincing victory by a couple of goals would be a disappointment from this match.

Dortmund Form

BVB have had a pretty poor 2021. After three defeats in four Bundesliga matches and a 2-2 home draw with Hoffenheim, they announced that Marco Rose would be arriving as coach from the start of next season. That seemed to galvanise the side as they won four matches in a row including 3-2 away at Sevilla.

Their last five matches have seen just a single victory as Dortmund have lost 4-2 at Bayern Munich, progressed in the Champions League after a 2-2 draw at home to Sevilla and lost 2-1 at home this weekend to Eintracht Frankfurt.

Dortmund Team News

Coach Edin Terzic had to make do without 16 year old striker Youssoufa Moukoko, winger Jaden Sancho and left back Marcel Schmelzer against Eintracht Frankfurt whilst Axel Witsel and Dan-Axel Zagadou remain out with long-term injuries.

Dortmund have been lining up in a 4-2-3-1 shape with Emre Can at centre back though he was right back this weekend with Thomas Meunier rested. Marco Reus has been playing as a number ten behind scoring prodigy, Haaland. Julian Brandt should return to start on the wing after being given a breather this weekend after international duty.

Dortmund Motivation

Dortmund will play their usual transition-focused game against City. They won’t be too bothered about possession and will look to play forward quickly into Reus and Haaland on counter attacks. A draw would feel like a victory and they’d bite your hand off for one, but would probably be satisfied to score and lose by one goal ahead of the second leg.

Key Stats

City have lost just 1 of their last 34 matches (W30, D3)

Man City have won 11 of their last 12 home matches

City have won their last 4 CL matches against German opposition

City have kept 7 clean sheets in a row in the CL

Dortmund have won 1 of their last 5 matches

Dortmund have lost 4 of their last 8 away matches

Dortmund are unbeaten in 7 CL matches

Erling Haaland has scored 10 goals in 6 CL matches this season

Prediction

City are massive favourites and should win this match. There is little value in an outright win so some creative bets provide greater value.