Champions League Betting – City visits Steaua in Playoff Round
Manchester City (-222) at Steaua Bucuresti (+587), Draw (+341)
After opening their Premier League campaign with a win, Manchester City should begin their Champions League run with similar success when they take on Romanian club Steaua Bucuresti this Tuesday at Stadionul Steaua in Buchareșt (2:45 PM Eastern) in the first leg of a two-game, home-and-home series.
City beat Sunderland 2-1 over the weekend in the first meaningful game under new manager Pep Guardiola. The victory was far from perfect, as Man City gained the edge on a Paddy McNair own-goal in the 87th minute. Now, the big story out of the Sky Blues’ camp is the roster moves by Guardiola: specifically, dropping Joe Hart from no. 1 goalkeeper and benching Yaya Toure, who isn’t even traveling with the squad to Romania. (Although, after the plane was evacuated, perhaps he lucked out?)
It’s going to take more than a few travel hiccups to drop Man City to the level of their competitors, though. The club has to go through the playoff round this year after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the EPL. But that’s not a fair indication of their strength: City made the Champions League semifinals last season, losing to Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, Steaua Bucuresti hasn’t qualified for the Champions League group stage since 2013-14. Last season, they finished as the runner-up in the Romanian Liga 1 behind Astra Giurgiu. They beat the Czech club, Sparta Prague, 3-1 on aggregate in their qualifying stage of the Champions League to get to this point, and have actually won four-straight headed into this game.
Man City and Steaua have never gone head-to-head before, and it’s largely because these clubs aren’t on the same level. Even with Guardiola tinkering with his lineup and a new no. 1 goalie in Willy Caballero, City should roll to a convincing win in hostile territory, setting themselves up for an easier second leg next week back home.
Pick: Manchester City (-222).
Photo Credit: Football.ua CC BY-SA 3.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0] via Wikimedia Commons.
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.
