With Spurs struggling to get on target before the break, Al Hain-Cole is backing Guardiola’s motivated side to waste little time in taking control
Tottenham face a long 90 minutes when they visit the Etihad Stadium for Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Manchester City.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men pulled off a shock 1-0 win in their first ever European game at their new stadium last week, with Son Heung-min’s late goal giving them a slender lead to defend against the tournament favourites.
Latest odds
However, having lost six of their last eight visits to this ground, they are 10/1 (11.00) outsiders with Fortebet to complete the job with a win, and priced at 5/1 (6.00) to seal their place in the semi-finals with a draw.Indeed, the Citizens have won 23 of their 25 home matches in all competitions this campaign, and are overwhelming 3/10 (1.30) favourites to get back into the tie by coming out on top.
Team news
Fernandinho should return to the line-up after missing Sunday’s victory over Crystal Palace with a minor injury, leaving Claudio Bravo as the only absentee.
Eric Dier, Serge Aurier, Erik Lamela, and Harry Kane are all ruled out through injury, while Dele Alli is a doubt after sustaining a broken hand in the first leg and Fernando Llorente faces a late fitness test.
Quick start
With memories of knockout stage exits at the hands of Monaco and Liverpool in the past two seasons fresh in their minds, Pep Guardiola’s men will want to waste no time in overturning their 1-0 aggregate deficit.
Indeed, they will certainly back themselves to get off the mark quickly considering they have opened the scoring on the way to victory in four of their last five matches – with last week’s first leg the only exception.
Meanwhile, Spurs have lost six of their last seven away matches, scoring before half-time just once in that run.
Predictions
With just one of Tottenham’s 14 Champions League goals this season arriving in the first half, odds of 4/5 (1.80) offer solid value on City coming out on top after leading at the break for the fourth meeting in five between the teams.
All odds correct at time of publish. Please gamble responsibly.
