Man City v Shakhtar Donetsk: Citizens to rubber-stamp passage to Last 16

THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE return on Tuesday night. Daniel McCulloch (@DMcCulloch1984) analyses the odds as Manchester City host Shakhtar Donetsk.

Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk | Tuesday 26th November 2019, 20:00 | BT Sport

It’s rare for me to even consider the 1X2 market where Manchester City are concerned and Tuesday evening’s home tie with Shakhtar Donetsk is no different. The Citizens are a best price of 2/11 and given their domination of their Champions League group to date, it is easy to see why.

Pep Guardiola’s side have 10 points from their four games – double the tally any other side have amassed – and I can’t see their Ukrainian opponents returning home with any more points.

This is the second successive season that Shakhtar have faced City in the group stages of this competition and the current goals tally reads Manchester City 12 Shakhtar Donetsk 0.

Those three matches are the only ones in which they’ve failed to score in their last 12 matches in European competition (across the Champions League and Europa League), so it’s fair to suggest that they might be sick of the sight of Tuesday's opponents.

Shakhtar's domestic form is excellent, however, with 14 wins and one draw and their Champions League credentials – outside of games against City – are also pretty good. They’ve beaten Atalanta away from home and managed two scoring draws with Dinamo Zagreb.

Manchester City are outright favourites to win this competition and while 3/1 is skinny, I cannot dispute them being the jollies. I think they will win this game, too, but can see them conceding. As stated previously, Donestk have lost all three games against City over the last two seasons, but have actually managed 28 shots across those three matches.

With this in mind, allied by City’s defensive concerns and Shakhtar’s general goalscoring prowess, I am lead to a home victory and Both Teams To Score. That is available at 6/4 with Betfred.

I won’t bore you with all the stats under Guardiola’s reign but suffice to say that the 2-1 and 3-1 scorelines are also worth a few pennies. In 20 domestic and European matches so far this term, The Citizens have won in this manner on five occasions, including their last two home victories.

In terms of selections, I will stick to City and BTTS but it is definitely worth looking at these results if you want a small interest on Tuesday night.