Manchester City were tipped to be one of the favorites to win the Champions League this season, but they might not make it out of the quarterfinals. Liverpool were rampant in a 3-0 home win, and now have to hold on when the two meet in the second leg on April 10th.
What To Know About Liverpool
Mohamed Salah continued his wonderful season by opening the scoring in the 12th minute, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain lashed a vicious strike into the top corner eight minutes later. Sadio Mane capped it off with a header in the 31st minute on an assist for Salah, and the second half was basically an exercise in defending for Liverpool, who stand on the cusp of the final four. The entire team deserves attention for their play as there wasn’t really a star man, outside of possibly Salah. All of the players knew what they had to do and executed the game plan laid down by Jurgen Klopp, who has now beaten Manchester City counterpart Pep Guardiola in six of their 13 meetings. They pressed and harried Manchester City into making mistakes that they don’t usually make, and even though there were a few worrying moments in the second half, Liverpool are well-placed to advance now. However, Salah limping off with a groin injury wasn’t a good sign and Jordan Henderson will miss the second leg due to a yellow card.
What To Know About Manchester City
This was not the Manchester City that we are used to seeing. They had 66% of the ball, yet never looked like scoring; they never even found the target with any of their 11 shots. Aymeric Laporte is a central defender who was asked to play left back against Salah, and that went just about how you would expect. Kyle Walker didn’t get any help against Mane and Andrew Robertson on the other side. Kevin De Bruyne never got a chance to influence the game in midfield, although he did try hard, while David Silva was very poor as well. However, the worst mark goes to Guardiola, who made some adjustments in the second half, but the game was well over by then. This was definitely his worst performance as Manchester City’s manager.
Outlook
Manchester City are favored at home in this matchup at 1.50, while Liverpool are rated at 5.50 and a draw comes in at 4.60. Both have derby games this weekend in the Premier League as Manchester City hosts Manchester United, while Liverpool heads to Everton, so injury and fatigue could be a factor by the time they get to Tuesday. Salah’s injury is a big concern to Liverpool, who have won two of three against Manchester City this season and won 4-1 at City in November 2015. Manchester City will respond and likely win this match, but can they overturn a three-goal deficit without allowing any goals? At this point, they don’t have anything to lose and Liverpool has shown this season that their defending can be shaky, to say the least. The second leg of this tie is going to be a very interesting game.
Champions League Betting Pick: Manchester City
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