Man City v Bayern: Nearly impossible to keep visitors at bay

Manuel Pellegrini may have overseen three Champions League group stage shut-outs as Malaga boss last season, but with mighty Bayern Munich in town the chances of keeping Man City’s sheets out of the wash are slim.

Ladbrokes have priced a home clean sheet at 10/3 as Manchester City host the European champions in Group D, but given the ultra-prolific nature of the Germans, it may be wise to search elsewhere for a profit.

A run which was forged under Jupp Heynckes during the treble-winning season and continued under Pep Guardiola has now witnessed Bayern hit the opposition net in their last 35 games on the road in all competitions.

This immediately brings into play the rather less profitable, but far more probable, 11/20 on both teams to find the net at the Etihad.

Although City have managed to keep the opposition out five times so far this season in all competitions, the defensive horror show at Aston Villa in their last outing – the second time the Citizens have been breached three times – will have caused some alarm bells to ring for Pellegrini.

When you consider the ramp up in quality City’s defence will face and the fact the Germans have netted at least twice in 16 of the last 21 of the aforementioned run, then over 1.5 Bayern goals at 10/11 is particularly palatable.

And bearing in mind that City are no slouches in front of goal either, having averaged 3.5 per game in their last four, the 33/20 on 2/3 goals ending up in Bayern’s onion bag should not be baulked at, it should be backed.

But, possibly the best pro-City bet has to be the 8/5 on the Premier League boys scoring more goals in the second half of this match, as 16 of the 21 goals they’ve scored this season have arrived after the oranges.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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