Real Madrid v Manchester City Betting Tips: Can Pep Guardiola outfox his old rivals?

Odds and preview for Champions League last-16 first leg

With the Premier League title virtually done and dusted, Manchester City will be gunning for Champions League glory and they face a tough test in 13-time winners Real Madrid.

The clash at the Bernabeu gets underway at 20:00 on BT Sport 2 and we’ve got all the essential pre-match odds and info…

Match Odds

Home advantage could be a factor, with our traders pricing Real as slight favourites at 9/5.

But City will fancy their chances and at 7/5, former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola will be licking his lips at the prospect of beating his old foes, despite City failing to beat the Spaniards in four attempts. Meanwhile, the draw at 5/2 looks tempting after Real were held at home by Club Brugge and Paris Saint-Germain in the group stage.

Both sides are far from shy in front of goal, notching 30 times between them so far in the competition, and over 3.5 goals is going at 31/20. Real have scored in each of their last 22 home knockout games and you can get them to win and BTTS at 18/5.

Form

Real will be relishing a break from domestic action after following up a draw against Celta Vigo with a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Levante on Saturday. However, they’d won their previous five La Liga games and they trail league leaders Barcelona by just two points.

Eden Hazard’s return from injury lasted two games and Zinedine Zidane will be hoping Gareth Bale can step up and end his goal drought, having failed to score in the league since September.

City remain 22 points behind Liverpool in the Premier League despite wins over West Ham and Leicester. Aymeric Laporte’s timely return from the sidelines has coincided with two consecutive clean sheets.

Likely XIs

With Hazard ruled out for three months, Zidane faces a headache in replacing him and Isco is likely to get the nod ahead of Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo. The French boss may consider ringing the changes in order to get back to winning ways, meaning Marcelo could make way for Ferland Mendy while Federico Valverde may replace Luka Modric in the middle.

Guardiola has a near fully-fit squad to choose from and Laporte is set to partner Fernandinho in the heart of defence once again. David Silva should slot back into the line-up after being rested at the weekend and Raheem Sterling is expected to replace Riyad Mahrez after missing the last two games with a hamstring problem.

Key Battles

Karim Benzema is enjoying another prolific campaign and the Real striker will look to play off Fernandinho, the smaller of City’s centre-backs.

Elsewhere, Casemiro will need to find a way to prevent Kevin De Bruyne from dictating the game. The Belgian maestro has provided 19 assists in all competitions so far and Zidane will know stopping De Bruyne is key to stopping City.

Goalscorer Odds

Sergio Aguero missed a penalty at Leicester but he remains the 16/5 favourite to open the scoring and add to the 21 goals he’s netted this season.

Benzema at 4/1 is the most likely first goalscorer for Real and you can get him at 7/5 to score anytime. Raheem Sterling has scored 10 times in his last 13 Champions League games – get him to score anytime at 11/5.

Real captain Sergio Ramos loves a Champions League goal and as first-choice penalty taker, he’s 4/1 to score anytime. And after netting a late winner at Leicester, super sub Gabriel Jesus is priced at 5/1 to score the last goal of the game.

View the latest Real Madrid v Manchester City odds.

All odds and markets correct as of date of publication