Another Manchester derby is on the horizon as City and United go head to head for the 187th time in history on Sunday.
The last six Manchester derbies have been low-scoring affairs and bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 2.25 for under 2.5 goals on Sunday. The odds for under 1.5 goals are at 4.33.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: March 4th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
This matchup hasn’t featured over two goals since January 2020 and it also hasn’t seen a lot of City wins in recent years. Pep Guardiola’s team tends to dominate against almost everyone in England, but they have won just two of the last six derbies and three of the meetings have ended in defeats.
Guardiola has suffered six losses overall against United, which is his second-worst record against any opposition. Having won seven of his 15 Manchester derbies, Guardiola still has more wins than losses in the match-up but these numbers clearly need some work.
City are huge favorites to come out on top on Sunday. They have been almost flawless in the league since the start of November while United continue to put in very inconsistent performances.
Ralf Rangnick has taken only one loss in 17 games in charge of the Red Devils, but there have also been just eight victories and United surely won’t be able to hang on to their Champions League spot if they continue to win less than half of their games.
Beating their neighbors, who completely dominated this season’s first derby at Old Trafford, would be a huge lift for United but getting a big result on Sunday is much easier said than done.
Rangnick has to squeeze out a top-notch defensive effort from the team and hope that Cristiano Ronaldo is able to turn back the clock and produce another winning performance in a big game.
Having scored just once in his last eight league appearances, the Portuguese ace finds himself in a slump ahead of the derby. He’s had a lot of success in the Champions League, but Ronaldo’s return to the Premier League hasn’t gone quite according to play with him scoring in only seven of his 23 outings.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has set very high standards for himself and he also takes great pride in helping his team to win. The loss at Old Trafford should have hurt him badly and he’ll do everything in his power to make things right, but the whole team needs to find another gear if they want to have a chance against the league leaders.
