Group D Clash of the titans – Man City v Bayern Munich

It’s a tale of two Cities. First we had the Manchester City that thrashed neighbours United and then, just six days later, we got the City that somehow managed to lose to a there-for-the-taking Aston Villa. So which City will turn up against Bayern Munich tomorrow night?

If it’s the first City, then the Germans, 4/1 favourites with Coral to retain their Champions League title, will do well to come away from the Etihad with a point, good as they are. They were imperious against United, top class in all areas of the pitch, and it’s hard to believe that any European side would have matched them on that day.

But if City, 12/1 themselves to win the competition outright, put on a show like they did against Villa – or as against Cardiff in late August when they also lost 3-2 – then Bayern have the players to take them apart and again leave the Blue half of Manchester hugely concerned about their ability to cope on the big European stage.

Bayern were mightily impressive last season, especially when twice embarrassing Barcelona in the semi-finals, and they promise to be even better this campaign with Mario Gotze a quality addition to the squad and Pep Guardiola taking over as manager.

Unbeaten so far in the Bundesliga this season, they have every right to be considered the best team in Europe and it will be a real feather in the cap of Manuel Pellegrini and the City players if they can get the better of them tomorrow night.

We know all about the skills of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery, but Mario Mandzukic (6/1 to score first or last, 7/4 any time) and Claudio Pizarro (7/1 and 2/1) are even bigger goal threats.

City, too, have danger men up front, of course, and none more dangerous than Sergio Aguero (7/1 and 2/1). There could be plenty of goals in this and those who feel City might come out on top (12/5) could do worse than take Coral’s 17/4 a home win with both sides scoring.

But this will also be a night when big displays and big hearts will be required in midfield and defence and City fans will be relying on the likes of Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany to deliver the sort of command performances that snuffed United out at source the weekend before last.

With less pressure on than in some of the tighter groups (both teams should qualify comfortably for the knock-out stages, whatever this result), this has the makings of a great game. It should also give us a big clue as to whether the Premiership clubs have indeed fallen way behind the top Continental sides or whether last season’s poor collective Champions League effort was just a blip.

Written by Jon Freeman