These two sides meet at this stage of the competition for the second year in a row and City will be going for revenge after suffering a 4-1 defeat over two legs last season. Manuel Pellegrini’s side needed two key victories at home to Bayern Munich and at the Stadio Olimpico against Roma to even make it out of the group stages after they suffered a surprise defeat to CSKA Moscow in front of their own fans on Bonfire Night.
Barcelona narrowly topped their group ahead of Paris St. Germain and while they don’t look like the side who dominated Europe under Pep Guardiola, they have been going along quite well and City will certainly have hoped to avoid the Catalan side at this early stage of the competition. Luis Enrique’s team are currently in second place in La Liga and they will be looking to reclaim the title after last season which failed to yield any trophies. As for European glory, they will be expected to go to the latter stages of the competition, but we fancy that City will run them close, particularly if Pellegrini decides that the title race is over and concentrates all of his resources on the Champions League.
Manchester City v Barcelona Betting Tips
- Match to end in a draw – At 27/10 with BetVictor, we’ve got our money on this week’s match ending in a draw as two of European football’s leading lights go head to head. Barca had the edge over Pellegrini’s men last season but City always seem to pull something out of the bag in Europe at the Etihad and we fancy the tie to still be in the balance when the two teams meet at the Nou Camp.
- Sergio Aguero to score at anytime – The Argentine can usually be backed to magic up a goal and we fancy the former Atletico Madrid player to open the scoring on Tuesday. He scored a hat-trick when City faced off with Bayern Munich and at odds of 8/5 with Bet365 you wouldn’t bet against him hitting the net.
- Penalty to be awarded in the game – The tie between these two last year saw two men sent off for Manchester City and Barcelona score a penalty. With both sides featuring a number of tricky, skilful players who are more than capable of winning a penalty should they be allowed into the area and Betfair offering 5/2 on a penalty to be awarded in the match, this is a nice little bet.
- Lionel Messi to score two or more goals – Lionel Messi is a quality player and when he’s in the groove, he’s almost unstoppable. At 5/1 with Bet365 you can back him to score more than one and he’s already scored plenty of goals this season for the Catalan side and you wouldn’t bet against him bagging another couple on Tuesday.