Manchester City vs Lyon Predictions, betting tips, odds & match preview
Manchester City can take a huge step towards a first ever Champions League final if they can overcome Lyon in the quarter final on Saturday night.
Manchester City are the favourites to lift the Champions League trophy at this stage of the tournament despite never having won it before. The Citizens didn’t win their own domestic league this time around of course with Liverpool romping to the Premier League title, but with the Reds out of the competition and Pep Guardiola’s men having dumped out Real Madrid in the Round of 16, the pathway to the final appears to be opening up for City.
Despite disappointment in the FA Cup and the final crowning of Liverpool as league champions, the Citizens did produce some fine performances following the end of lockdown in the Premier League and they carried some momentum from those displays into their return to European action last week. Two dreadful mistakes from Raphaël Varane may have gifted City the opportunities, but a 2-1 win against this competition’s most successful ever club is still impressive.
Lyon are the opponents for Pep Guardiola and his side in the final eight stages and les Gones caused City problems in the Champions League group stages just last season. Of the two, only the English outfit progressed from the groups eventually, but it was the French side that came on top over those two fixtures, drawing 2-2 at Groupama Stadium following an eye-catching 1-2 win at the Etihad Stadium that had earned the likes of Tanguy N’dombele and Nabil Fekir plenty of plaudits.
Neither of those two players are still with the Ligue 1 side of course and that has no doubt played a part in their disappointing 7th placed finish in the curtailed 2019/2020 league campaign. Lyon not only made it through a very tough group stage that saw them come up against Zenit St Petersburg, RB Leipzig and Benfica – but they’ve now overcome Italian champions Juventus in the Round of 16 to book their place in the truncated finals in Portugal.
All of this sets us up for a fascinating tie at Estadio José Alvalade and if you’re after some Champions League betting tips for the action, read on!
Manchester City vs Lyon Betting Tips
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Manchester City vs Lyon Predictions
Squawka Stat: Manchester City have won eight of their last 13 competitive matches by a margin of more than one goal.
Manchester City have a great opportunity to get their hands on the Champions League for the first time in their history in Lisbon. The truncated nature of the final stages of the tournament means the Citizens are now just three wins from lifting the trophy and on Saturday night they face arguably the weakest side remaining in the competition.
Lyon are by no means pushovers, but they have relied on a fair deal of luck to reach this stage of the competition having won only three of their eight fixtures so far, going down in defeats to Benfica and Zenit St Petersburg in the group stages and losing the second leg of their tie with Juventus but progressing on the away goals rule.
Manchester City have won 10 of their 13 competitive matches since football’s return from lockdown and eight of those wins have been by a margin of more than one goal. With the likes of Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus to call upon in attack, we think they’ll rack up the chances and the goals in earning a comfortable quarter final win here.
Squawka Stat: City forward Raheem Sterling has scored 10 goals in his last 10 competitive matches.
Raheem Sterling was coming in for some criticism prior to the season being locked down after going 14 games without a goal. That record was very much an unwanted one for such a prolific attacking player but he has since redressed the balance by finding the net ten times in his last ten games.
Those ten goals take the England forward’s tally to an impressive 31 goals in all competitions for the campaign and as you can see from his shot map in the Champions League below, Sterling’s ability to find space in between the penalty spot and the six yard box is invaluable to Manchester City and often leads to goals.
After a goal in the win over Real Madrid last week, the 25 year old will be full of confidence coming into this game and he should have the ability to put les Gones’ defence to the sword.
Squawka Bet Tip:Raheem Sterling to score at any time @ 11/10 with Paddy Power – odds correct at the time of writing
Manchester City Form
Manchester City 2-1 Bournemouth (15/07/20 – Premier League)
Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City (18/07/20 – FA Cup)
Watford 0-4 Manchester City (21/07/20 – Premier League)
Manchester City 5-0 Norwich City (26/07/20 – Premier League)
Manchester City 2-1 Real Madrid (07/08/20 – Champions League)
Lyon Form
Lyon 2-0 Saint-Etienne (01/03/20 – Ligue 1)
Lyon 1-5 PSG (04/03/20 – Coupe de France)
Lille 1-0 Lyon (01/03/20 – Ligue 1)
Lyon 0-0 (p) PSG (31/07/20 – Coupe de Ligue)
Juventus 2-1 Lyon (07/08/20 – Champions League)
READ MORE ON THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE:
Champions League 2019/20 top scorers list
Champions League 2019/20 assist leaders
Champions League 2019/20 Golden Glove standings
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