Who will stop Manchester City on their quest to win the Champions League for a second consecutive season?
is the key question.
The holders will cruise past RB Leipzig, Young Boys, and Red Star Belgrade (also known as Crvena Zvezda), their first opponents at the Etihad Stadium, so it’s safe to say that nobody from Group G will be in that section.
Harry Kane’s transfer to Bavaria won’t close the gap between City and Bayern Munich, which was widened by City’s rout of Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals on the way to last year’s championship game.
After that, they defeated Real Madrid with ease, and Jude Bellingham’s move to the Bernabeu doesn’t make up the difference either.
Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Manchester United, and last year’s finalists are all significantly inferior to Pep Guardiola’s elite group.
The only team capable of ending City’s hegemony in Europe is City itself.
There is no way anyone will be able to defeat them over two legs in the knockout stages, even if they aren’t at their best in the final or are denied by unfavorable circumstances or a contentious decision.
Lump on Pep’s team to win the glitzy trophy at Wembley on Saturday, June 1 at 9/4 with Sky Bet and Betfred.
On Saturday at the London Stadium, West Ham played admirably and took the lead against a depleted City team, but they were soundly defeated.
Even though Erling Haaland had a bad day and missed several open shots before scoring, the Premier League champions easily defeated Belgrade 3-1, which is not encouraging for the Serbian team.
You won’t go wrong betting on over 4+5 goals at 7/5 with Paddy Power and over 5+5 at 16/5 with Betfair because the reigning Serbian champions lack experience playing at the highest level in Europe.
With the same two bookmakers, Haaland is 15/8 to break the tie, but you can also bet a little on Phil Foden at 13/2 with Sky Bet.
• AC Milan is 13/8 to defeat unconvincing Newcastle in the San Siro despite being thrashed 5-1 by Inter at the weekend despite winning their previous three Serie A games.
In Rotterdam, where Feyenoord is 8/13 to win with SpreadEx and sticks the Italians and Dutch in a treble with Atletico Madrid, who is 8/5 with BetUK to defeat Lazio, Celtic faces a similarly difficult situation.
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