Simon Balow – Spotlight Sports GroupPublished: 7:00, 6 Mar 2024
Champions League heavyweights Manchester City and Real Madrid bid to finish the jobs they started three weeks ago when they host FC Copenhagen and RB Leipzig respectively in Wednesday’s round of 16 deciders.
For today’s tips, we’re expecting an entertaining night at Estadio Bernabeu, a goal from City’s star of the knockout stages and highlighting the possibility of a surprise result in the Championship.
Bet of the day
Real Madrid vs RB Leipzig Over 3.5 Total Goals – 90 Mins – 6/5
Despite finishing 1-0 to Real Madrid, the first leg of this last-16 tie was a thrilling affair that featured 15 shots apiece, 10 corners and a controversial disallowed goal for the home side.
The Red Bulls gave as good as they got and should be confident of causing the 14-time European Cup winners more problems on their patch.
Marco Rose’s side can be a relentless attacking unit in the Bundesliga and will carry the twin threat of in-form strike duo Benjamin Sesko and Lois Openda.
Four of Sesko’s seven league goals have come in his last six matches and Openda has registered 17 times in 24 Bundesliga games since he arrived in Germany last summer.
Leipzig fired 13 goals in their six group stage matches, including two or more in each of their three away dates, so there is good reason to believe they can breach Real Madrid’s defence at the Bernabeu.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side conceded two in their last Champions League home game against Napoli in December and were opened up by a far less potent Valencia side in La Liga last weekend.
But they also ooze class going forward and, with Vinicius Junior among the goals and Jude Bellingham fully fit once more, this has the potential to be a high-scoring affair.
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Special of the day
Kevin De Bruyne Anytime Goalscorer – 9/4
Kevin De Bruyne has often been Manchester City’s man for the big occasion and he stepped up when they needed him by scoring the opening goal in their 3-1 first-leg win in Denmark.
In doing so, he became just the fourth player to score at least 10 goals in the knockout stages of the Champions League since the start of 2019-20 and the other three are all pure strikers.
The Belgian has been used sparingly by Pep Guardiola between the two European ties, but that has kept him fresh and you can be sure he will be one of the first names on the City boss’ teamsheet for this game.
Long shot of the day
Preston to beat Southampton – 13/2
Back-to-back home defeats to Hull and Millwall saw Southampton slide from second to fourth place in the Championship last month.
And they almost dropped more points away to struggling Birmingham on Saturday when trailing 1-0 and 2-1 before Joe Aribo’s winning goal broke a 3-3 deadlock late in stoppage time.
Russell Martin’s side have conceded 13 goals in their last six league games and won’t always be able to rely on dramatic salvage jobs to escape with all three points.
Their recent form is inferior to visitors Preston, who have won four and drawn two of their last six in the league to climb up to eighth position.
Ryan Lowe’s side are good travellers too, having beaten Cardiff and Coventry on the road recently while the manager was adamant that his side should have been awarded a penalty in last Saturday’s 0-0 home draw with Hull.
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