The final four round of 16 fixtures of the UEFA Champions League get underway across Tuesday and Wednesday this week, with the remaining spots as one of Europe’s top eight sides up for grabs.
Both English sides have some work to do – perhaps one slightly more than the other – if they are to join Chelsea as the remaining Premier League sides in the draw.
We preview both of their fixtures below.
Manchester City vs RB Leipzig – Tuesday 20:00
Pep Guardiola’s City side will be disappointed they didn’t consolidate their lead when they went 1-0 up against Leipzig in the first round of this tie three weeks ago, with Joško Gvardiol’s leveller on the night meaning City have drawn three of their last four Champions League games. They will however take encouragement from the fact they won all three of their group stage games at the Etihad earlier in the season, racking up eight goals in the process, so understandably go into Tuesday’s second leg at 1/5 to qualify and 4/11 to win on the night.
Leipzig make up one of a quintet of clubs who are all vying for the Bundesliga title this season, with just seven points separating the top five at the top of Germany’s first division. They picked up a strong 3-0 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, with former Chelsea man Timo Werner continuing his good form with another superb strike, and will certainly show on Tuesday they are not just there to make up the numbers against a City side who have a track record of stage freight when the going gets tough in this competition. Despite the narrow first-leg scoreline, the German side are a 10/3 shot at progressing to the quarters at the expense of the 2021 finalists.
A draw (4/1) would take this tie into an intriguing extra-time period, where you would think this City side may begin to show some cracks against their well-drilled German counterparts. Guardiola’s men would however still be favourites to prevail and are 9/1 to triumph in extra-time, with Leipzig decent value at 25/1. It’s 16/1 for each side to go through on penalties.
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Real Madrid vs Liverpool – Wednesday 20:00
This was arguably the tie of the round when the draw was made, but a ruthless display from Real Madrid at Anfield three weeks ago has all but put this contest to bed. Barring a miracle from Liverpool, who to be fair have displayed they can score an alien-like amount of goals in matches against good opposition recently, you would think Carlo Ancelotti’s men will hold their end of the bargain and progress to the quarter finals, especially at their price of 1/50 to do so.
Jurgen Klopp’s side seem to take one step forwards, one step backwards in the Premier League, following up last Sunday’s historic 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United with a bizarre 1-0 loss to bottom side Bournemouth, with Mohamed Salah uncharacteristically blazing a second-half penalty wide of the target. In the Reds’ other three Champions League away games, there have been a remarkable 16 goals scored (11 for, five against), so if it’s controlled chaos Liverpool need in order to get back in the tie, they may just be the side for it.
An early goal would certainly make this one interesting, like when Chelsea took Madrid to extra-time against the odds at the Bernabeu last season. Real Madrid find themselves 13/10 favourites to win the game in 90 minutes, but, given Liverpool’s urgency to win by a landslide, their price of 9/5 to win on the night by any margin is probably a more appealing punt. The Reds are 12/1 to progress to the quarter finals altogether, with over 3.5 goals in the game a decent option at 5/4.
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