Man City v Dortmund- Preview, Predictions, and Best Bets

Man City face Dortmund at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League. The hosts got an impressive 4-0 win away at Sevilla on matchday one whilst BVB cruised past Copenhagen in a 3-0 win. The big talking point for this match is Erling Haaland returning to his former club whilst Manuel Akanji also just joined Pep Guardiola’s side from Dortmund.

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Man City Form

It’s been a good start to the season for City but it’s not been perfect. They won their opening two league fixtures (6-0 aggregate) being needed to come from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 at Newcastle in a pretty disappointing defensive display. A 4-2 home win against Crystal Palace saw Erling Haaland net a hattrick as City came from 2-0 down.

They then thrashed Nottm Forest 6-0 (with another Haaland hattrick) before surprisingly only drawing 1-1 at struggling Aston Villa as they conceded in the second half. Their most recent fixture was a 4-0 cruise away at Sevilla in the opening Champions League fixture.

Man City Team News

City will be without Aymeric Laporte in central defence whilst John Stones has been carrying a knock. Kyle Walker is also expected to miss out, meaning Nathan Ake could be required at left-back. Another option 11m signing from Anderlecht, Sergio Gomez. Manuel Akanji will partner Ruben Dias in the heart of defence.

Guardiola has a clean bill of health otherwise. Ilkay Gundogan will hope to start against his former employers which could mean Bernardo Silva moves to a right winger role with Jack Grealish dropped and Phil Foden down the left flank.

Man City Motivation

Manchester City have had a week to prepare and recover ahead of this match. All attention will go on this fixture with Wolves over the weekend not taking any of their focus.

The hosts will go all-out to win this fixture and you can be sure that Haaland will be desperate to score whilst Akanji and Gundogan will want to impress too.

Dortmund Form

BVB have had a mixed start to the season, looking great at times and defensively frail on other occasions. After winning their first two Bundesliga matches, they were beaten 3-2 at home by Werder Bremen having led 2-0 after 88 minutes. Successive solid 1-0 league wins followed.

Dortmund began their continental action with a 3-0 home victory against Copenhagen with Marco Reus, Raphael Guerreiro, and Jude Bellingham scoring the goals. With almost the same starting XI, they were humbled 3-0 at RB Leipzig.

Dortmund Team News

Thorgan Hazard is doubtful for Dortmund after going off injured against Copenhagen. Marius Wolf could take his place on the flank. There are a wrath of injuries for coach Edin Terzic to contend with. Matt Hummels is only just back from injury and won’t start whilst Sebastien Haller is out due to Cancer treatment.

Mahmoud Dahoud is injured in midfield and both Karim Adeyemi and Donyell Malan are injury doubts in the frontline. Anthony Modeste could lead the line in preference to Youssoufa Moukoko.

Dortmund Motivation

BVB would be over the moon to get a point from this match. Failing that, they will want to avoid taking a thrashing, not least if it’s dealt out by Erling Haaland.

Dortmund could add an extra deeper midfielder to replace one of the attacking midfield trio behind the striker. Otherwise, they will not be equipped to defend in numbers and will have to throw bodies forward and try to outscore City.

Key Stats

Man City have won 11 of their last 13 home CL matches

City’s last 6 home CL matches have seen 15 goals scored (W5)

City beat Dortmund 2-1 in both fixtures in 2021

Dortmund have lost 2 of their last 5 matches, conceding 3 in each defeat

Dortmund have lost 3 of their last 4 away CL matches

Dortmund have conceded in their last 6 away CL matches (13 leaked)     

There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 11 of Dortmund’s last 12 CL games

Verdict

This match is all about Haaland and it would be a shock if he didn’t score at least once. Dortmund are inconsistent and can be exposed defensively so a win on the handicap for City looks a good bet, either -1 or -2.

Best Bet: Man City win (-1 goal) at 1.55
Alternative Bet: Man City win (-2 goals) at 2.30
Build-a-Bet: Man City Win, Over 2.5 goals + Haaland anytime scorer at 1.88