Champions League Betting – Barcelona vs. Manchester City
By Zack Garrison in News
Updated: January 17, 2018 at 9:40 am ESTPublished:
Barcelona (-250) vs. Manchester City (+700) (Draw +240)
Barcelona will look to get to make an eighth straight appearance in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals when they host Manchester City this Wednesday in the second leg of their Round of 16 matchup (2:45 PM Eastern at the Camp Nou).
As modest +100 favorites, Barcelona trumped Man City 2-1 in Manchester two weeks ago on the strength of two goals from Luis Suarez. The team now heads home with a one-goal lead in the two-game series, which will be decided on aggregate goals.
Barcelona are much heavier favorites this time around (with the game in Spain). They are sitting at -250 in the moneyline versus +700 for the Citizens (and +240 for the draw).
Los Blaugranas come into tomorrow’s game on fire. They have won 16 of their last 17 games (all competitions), including a 2-0 victory over Eibar during weekend La Liga action. The win kept them at the top of the table, a spot they claimed after Real Madrid fell to Atletico in early March.
Barca manager Luis Enrique is happy with his team’s current form, but isn’t pinning the entire year on Champions League success.
“We are arriving as La Liga leaders and in perfect condition,” said Enrique. “I do not consider this the most important week, instead a very nice week. Once which decides if we reach the quarterfinals or not, as City have a lot of quality. Then we will see how things go at the weekend [in the clasico].”
Manchester City, on the other hand, have lost three of their last four games in all competitions; in addition to the loss against Barcelona, the Citizens also fell to Liverpool and, most recently, Burnley in Premier League action.
Making matters worse, City have never beaten Barcelona in three tries.
Man City are still second in the Premier League, but the setbacks to Liverpool and Burnley have allowed third-place Arsenal to climb within a point, while archrival Man United are now just two back.
Don’t overthink this one.  Take Barcelona either in the moneyline or as -1 favorites in the handicap.
(Photo credit: LluÃs from Sabadell (Barcelona), España (LFS_13398) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)
Sports Writer
Zack is a tour guide whose favorite sports are football, baseball, and golf. He enjoys giving obnoxious commentary during games and hopes to some day write a book about sports. His favorite underdog victory was the Diamondbacks beating the Yankees in game 7 of the World Series.
