Sevilla vs Manchester City: Expect Pep Guardiola’s Men to Secure Spanish Success in Champions League Opener
Tuesday 6th September - 20:00
The most prestigious tournament in club football is now underway, and the level of interest in Champions League betting remains unparalleled; and with regards to the British market, the level of activity is even more accentuated by the fact that no less than six teams from England and Scotland are involved in the group stages.
Last season’s runners-up Liverpool will once again seek to go far into the tournament, and Man City will look to end their long-running chase for a Champions League trophy. Chelsea are pushing for their third win, and Tottenham make a welcome return under Italian boss Antonio Conte.
Into the mix come Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers, both of which have glamorous draws in the group stages and will hope to secure a win or two and perhaps even harbour hopes of making it to the knockout stages.
Man City Counting On Champions League Progress
Having won the Premier League title in four of the past five seasons, it would be fair to say that Pep Guardiola’s main focus, and that of everyone involved at the Etihad Stadium, is a maiden Champions League trophy triumph.
This is the club’s 12th successive shot at winning the tournament, and in previous years they’ve made it as far as the quarter-finals for five years on the trot. They got to the final in 2020-21 but lost out to Chelsea but are even more capable of going all the way after making key additions to what was already a stellar squad.
The signing of forward Ering Haaland has already proven to be a massive success in Premier League terms, the Norwegian netting ten goals in his first six domestic fixtures and the youngster is already a proven commodity at the Champions League level, so you can expect City to saunter through their group and then the lottery of knock out games comes into play.
They start their campaign with a trip to Spain to face a Sevilla side who are a shadow of the team that finished fourth in La Liga last season.
Guardiola’s team come into the game having failed to overcome an Aston Villa side that battled hard for a 1-1 draw at Villa Park. That said, Man City are still unbeaten in six Premier League games and very much where they’d expect to be at this stage. Perhaps most importantly, from a domestic league perspective, they are five points clear of their biggest rivals, Liverpool.
Sevilla Struggling
Julen Lopetegui’s team are without a win after four league fixtures, the opening three of which weren’t against top opposition. Sevilla have lost to Osasuna, Almeria, and Barcelona, and their sole point came from a home draw with Valladolid.
Group D may be a real titanic struggle for Sevilla as they also have to face Borussia Dortmund and Danish champions FC Copenhagen and they’ll want to give a good account of themselves in the first of their six fixtures.
The sale of Jules Kounde to Barcelona has destabilized the Sevilla defence, which is still chasing their first clean sheet, and City’s forward line may well be licking their lips at the prospect of facing their defence.
Best Bets
Erling Haaland to Score at Least Two Goals – 4/1, 16/1 for Hat-Trick
Over at Grosvenor Sports, you can get a very tidy 4/1 on Haaland scoring at least twice, something the former Borussia Dortmund man has already managed in three of his six Premier League appearances to date.
Haaland has already scored 15 Champions League goals in just 13 matches, and he finished as the top-scorer in the competition back in 2020-21; and he’ll prove a real handful for Sevilla on Tuesday night.
If you are feeling very lucky, you could back the tall, powerful striker to bag a hat-trick at 16/1, and it would be the third of the season after Haaland’s trebles against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest.
