Week 2 of UEFA Champions League begins and we have a crucial early kick off on Tuesday! Hoffenheim hosts Manchester City in Germany. A game where Manchester City are in huge need of a win after dropping the opening game at home to Lyon. If City lose they could fall 4 points behind 2nd and all of a sudden the pressure would be huge. For Hoffenheim, they cannot afford to lose at home at all in this group, if Lyon continue their form and City go ahead of Hoffenheim all of a sudden they could fall out of contention for R16 really quickly. Hoffenheim drew their opening game in Ukraine against Shakhtar, this is their first ever UCL group stage match at home and their fans will for sure turn up, can the team do the same however? We’ll have to wait and see.
Key Facts
Hoffenheim have started the season slowly, in Bundesliga and UCL they’ve only won 2 of their 7 games. 2D 3L.
Hoffenheim have not had success in their two “big” games this season drawing against 10 men Dortmund and losing to Leipzig. Both at home.
Only one of Hoffenheim’s games had under 2.5 goals this season, the rest were overs.
Also, every single Hoffenheim game had BTTS this season. They’ve scored in every game but kept 0 clean sheets so far.
Szalai is Hoffenheim’s top scorer with 3 goals.
Bar their loss in UCL game 1, Manchester City have been pretty much flawless with 6W 1D 0L in the league, winning the community shield and their cup tie against Oxford.
Manchester City have scored 28 goals in 10 games in all competitions which is nearly 3 per game.
Aguero and Sterling are the most in form City players this season. Aguero has 5G 2A, Sterling has 4G 2A.
Manchester City have lost 4 Champions League games in a row dating back to last season.
Team News
Hoffenheim: Hoffenheim have quite a few absentees, these include Lukas Rupp, Nadiem Amiri, Benjamin Hubner, Kerem Demirbay, Kasim Adams and Dennis Geiger. Bar these 6 names, everyone else is healthy and ready to go against Manchester City. During the weekends loss to Leipzig, Nagelsmann didn’t rotate much but we should expect one definite change with Joelinton starting up top over Belfodil. Also the backline was switched up and we should expect Nordtveit and Vogt get into the starting line-up. Hoffenheim have been prone to using 3 at the back this season and we should expect no different here.
Manchester City: Mendy is still out for Manchester City and Pep has been using Zinchenko and Delph at that LB position recently. Zinchenko featured against Brighton, but we should expect Delph to play here due to his experience. This is a huge match and we’d like to think that Delph will start but don’t fully rule out Zinchenko possibly starting though. De Bruyne and Bravo are still of course out and Aguero is questionable with a foot problem therefore there’s a possibility that Jesus will start up top over Aguero if he doesn’t feel fully fit. Elsewhere it’s a healthy City side, expect Sterling, both Silvas and Sane all to start as they’ve been playing great football right now. Pep Guardiola won’t be on the touchline again for a UCL match. It proved costly last time so we’ll have to monitor how City respond with him not there again.
Betting Tips and Predictions
We’re backing City to win, but wouldn’t place a bet on them due to risky low odds at 1.38. It won’t be an easy game for the English champions so the odds just don’t hold value. We should see goals here. Over 3.5 goals at 2.00 is worth the look given how leaky Hoffenheim are and how strong going forward City are, but also because Hoffenheim are at home they should be able to score. BTTS is only priced at 1.57, but if you can another decent pick with similar picks you could put it in a combo since BTTS is pretty much a guaranteed thing to happen here. City aren’t some defensive powerhouse. Given his current form, Sterling to score anytime at 2.35 is our final pick from this game. With Aguero potentially out, Sterling becomes City’s top scorer on the field, and even with Aguero, Sterling is quite likely to get on a scoresheet in a game that has goals galore potential. Our prediction is a 2-3 Manchester City win.
Match Odds (TonyBet)
Hoffenheim Win – 7.80
Draw – 5.50
Manchester City Win – 1.38
KICK OFF – 2nd October 2018 – 5:55pm UK Time
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