Tottenham Hotspur pulled off a mammoth upset in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie with Manchester City, winning 1-0 and heading to the Etihad with a chance to eliminate City from the tournament. Son Heung-min scored the only goal of the match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and that was enough against a City team that put out a starting XI that showed a lack of respect for the opponent. Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sane did come on as substitutes, but by then the game was so far along that there was scant time for them to contribute to the match. All Tottenham needs is a single away goal to make their advancement likely. Can they sink the hopes of Manchester City? Or will the hosts roar back to reverse the upset? We have your Champions league sports betting preview here.
Manchester City vs Tottenham UEFA Champions League Odds & Prediction
PEP 💬 I know how focused the players are. The desire to get to the semi-finals. Will it be enough? I don’t know. I got to the final once with one shot on target, and once I had 33 shots on target and didn’t. Football is that game.
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 16, 2019
- When: Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 3:00pm ET
- Where: Etihad Stadium, Manchester
- TV: Galavision
- Radio: None
- Live Stream: fubo.tv
- Opening Soccer Odds: Manchester City -333 / Draw +475 / Tottenham +750
Why should you bet on Manchester City?
City will almost certainly start their best XI in this game — and Tottenham will not have their star striker, Harry Kane, in this leg, as he went down in the first leg, and early reports indicate he will miss the remainder of the 2018-19 Premier League campaign. If City can get Fernandinho and Fabian Delph, who played in the first leg but sat out this weekend against Crystal Palace, back in the lineup, then they should have their full complement of players for the match.
Despite losing in the first leg, City had won three of the previous four meetings between the two sides, with the fourth meeting ending in a draw. Indeed, the two sides will meet again this coming Saturday in Premier League play. The last time these two sides squared off at the Etihad came back in December 2017, when City rolled to a 4-1 victory. The all-time series between these two clubs is exactly square, with each side winning 61 and 35 matches ending in draws, across all competitions. Of course, this series has moved toward City in recent years as the squad had spent years in the basement of the Premier League. The loss to Tottenham ended a 15-match unbeaten streak, and their last home Champions League match saw them rout Schalke 04, 7-0.
Why should you put your money on Tottenham?
Despite losing Harry Kane, Lucas Moura could replace him and join Son in a striker pair after putting up a hat trick in Premier League play over the weekend. Tottenham had been playing dreadful soccer in EPL fixtures, putting up a five-match streak without a win before posting three straight clean sheets, with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, the first-leg win over City, and a 4-0 shellacking of Huddersfield Town. All three of those stellar results came at home, but they do have some momentum to take to the Etihad.
Tottenham will benefit from the fact that City has to strike a balance between aggressiveness and caution, because an away goal would mean that City would have to win by at least two to advance. Tottenham will face a similar struggle, though, because if they are too conservative, City could dominate possession and wear down the Tottenham back line. With the away goal in hand, though, and the aggregate advantage, Tottenham is in the driver’s seat here.
Expert Pick and Final Score Prediction
I see City using the first half to sniff out the defense that Tottenham erects and start looking for chinks in the armor, and then after the intermission, should things remain scoreless, I see City applying more and more pressure to see if they can make the Spurs break down. I predict a final score of Manchester City 2, Tottenham 0, as the Citizens move on to the semifinals.
