Champions League Betting – Can City Salvage Season vs PSG?

Manchester City (+359) at Paris Saint-Germain (-139), Draw (+280)

Manchester City aren’t going to be winning the Premier League title this season, but they still want to be mentioned in the same breath as the top clubs in Europe. Today (2:45 PM at Parc Des Princes in Paris) the Citizens have a change to maintain their status on the international stage when they face French power Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.

Manchester City have invested plenty of money throughout the last few years trying to reach new heights in the Champions League. It hasn’t worked so far (they were bounced in the Round of 16 each of the past two seasons), but now they’re just 180 minutes away from the final four.

Getting past PSG is easier said than done, of course, especially with the way City have played over the last couple months. A rough 2-1-3 stretch over the past six has the team sitting fourth in the table, a full 15 points back of league-leading Leicester City. Arch-rival Man United are just one point back and could oust the Citizens from the all-important top-four in the coming weeks. (The top-four EPL finishers get automatic entry to next year’s Champions League.)

If City can capture the Champions League title, any and all domestic shortcomings would be forgiven and forgotten.

The first step on that road features PSG, an opponent that has also invested a lot of money in personnel in an effort to win the UCL.

PSG are familiar with the quarterfinals stage, having reached the final eight in each of the last three years, but they have yet to advance further. The team has the luxury of being able to focus exclusively on the UCL, but for very different reasons than Man City. PSG have already secured the Ligue 1 title (holding a ridiculous 25-point lead over second-place Monaco).

They moved into the quarterfinals with a 4-2 win on aggregate over Chelsea in the Round of 16. Zlatan Ibrahimović has paced the offense with four goals in eight UCL matches, but Ángel Di María, Lucas, Adrien Rabiot, and Edinson Cavani all have multiple tallies, as well, for the high-scoring team.

City edged out Dynamo Kiev (3-1 on aggregate) in the Round of 16, earning a 3-1 win on the road but just a scoreless draw at home.

These two squads have never met in the Champions League before. Paris Saint-Germain have won three of their four home games this season (3-1-0) and also earned a hard-fought point in a draw with Real Madrid. Manchester City have won three of their four away games (3-0-1), only losing in their visit to Juventus Stadium.

Both have talented rosters bought by fat wallets; however, PSG have much better momentum and are great at home.

Pick: PSG (-139). 

(Photo Credit: Nazionale Calcio (Flickr) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/.)