Manchester City will hope to finish off Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday having kicked off the quarterfinals tie with a 1-0 home win.
Bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 3.25 for another low-scoring affair and under 1.5 goals. The odds are at 1.73 for under 2.5 goals and at 2.00 for over 2.5 goals.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: April 12th, 12:30 P.M. (EST)
Atletico managed to frustrate City for most of the first leg but the Premier League champions still had just enough class to get the win. Kevin De Bruyne had a quality finish in the 70th minute to put City in the driving seat in the match-up.
De Bruyne went on to open the scoring in Sunday’s big clash against Liverpool and the Belgian play-maker has now recorded his first-ever four-game goal streak.
We have always known De Bruyne as a world-class passer of the ball, but he’s great at finding open space and he’s got a wicked shot in him, which has helped him to get 14 goals across all competitions this season.
De Bruyne is set to dictate the game again from City’s midfield and it will be vital for Atletico to limit his influence on the pitch. They did it pretty well in the opening leg and the whole defensive effort was mightily impressive, but City still managed to win the game and Atletico will have to tweak their game plan a bit to have a chance of qualifying.
The meeting in Manchester marked the first time ever Atleti failed to have a shot attempt in 570 games under Diego Simone. They put in a superb shift defensively, but it came with a cost and Simeone has to find a way to balance a good defense with a sharp offense in the return leg.
With Joao Felix, Antoine Griezmann and others, there’s plenty of attacking talent to hurt any opposition and we should see a more adventurous effort from Atletico. It should give the aforementioned players a better opportunity to have an impact on the game.
Can Antoine Griezmann finally prove that bringing him back wasn’t a mistake? His comeback campaign at the Metropolitano has been very underwhelming and there are just a few weeks of the season left for the Frenchman to prove that he can still be a valuable asset for the club.
With four goals and two assists to his name in Europe this season, Griezmann has saved some of his best performances for Champions League action and Atletico badly need another one from him on Wednesday to keep their European dream alive.
