Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund prediction: Haaland can hurt old side

Manchester City host Borussia Dortmund at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, looking to build on their unbeaten start in this season’s Champions League (8pm, TNT Sports 1).

Pep Guardiola’s side have so far beaten Napoli and Villareal and were held to a 2-2 draw away at Monaco when former Spurs star Eric Dier grabbed an equaliser in added time.

They currently sit joint sixth in the Champions League table with Wednesday’s opponents, who have also picked up seven points from their opening three games.

The eight-time Bundesliga champions drew 4-4 away at Juventus in their first match before beating Athletic Bilbao and Copenhagen. They have scored four goals in each of their three games with nine different players on the scoresheet.

Things are quite different for City, though, with former Dortmund star Erling Haaland having scored four of their six goals so far. He has also scored 13 of City’s 20 Premier League goals, which is why he is the third favourite to finish as the competition’s top scorer in the Champions League odds, behind Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane.

Haaland is odds-on with betting sites to score against his old team in a match that City are expected to win comfortably.

This will be only the seventh meeting between the two sides, and Dortmund have managed only one win so far, while City have won three and the other two have ended all square.

The last meeting was back in 2022 when City won the first match 2-1 at the Etihad, thanks to late goals from John Stones and Haaland after Jude Bellingham had given the visitors the lead.

They played out the only goalless draw a month later before City went on to lift the trophy as part of their treble-winning season.

City boss Pep Guardiola is unbeaten in his last 10 games against Borussia Dortmund across all competitions, winning six and drawing the other four. His last defeat against them came way back in 2014 in the German Super Cup final.

All three of his defeats in 15 matches with Bayern Munich against Dortmund came between 2013 and 2014 during Jurgen Klopp’s reign.

With City unbeaten in their last 22 home matches in the group/league phase of the competition, it’s easy to see why football betting sites have them as the standout favourites for victory, and it’s hard to see that run ending on Wednesday.

Man City vs Dortmund prediction 1: City to win by two goals - 7/2 Bet365

Picking Haaland to score in this one seems like a sensible choice, after all, he has already bagged 26 goals for club and country this season, and how often do we see players scoring against their former clubs?

The 25-year-old spent two years at Dortmund, after joining from RB Salzburg for £18m, and scored 86 goals in 89 appearances to earn the move to City.

He’s available at 5/2 on football betting apps to score two or more for the ninth time, including last time out against Bournemouth when he helped his side to a 3-1 win.

If he does score, then Haaland will become the first player ever to score in five consecutive Champions League appearances for three different teams. He previously did it for RB Salzburg in November 2019 and Dortmund in March 2021.

Man City vs Dortmund prediction 2: Haaland to score first - 13/5 Bet365

City: Guardiola has no new injury worries ahead of the game, and he has Rodri available after the Spanish international returned to action as a late substitute on Sunday. John Stones, Omar Marmoush, Oscar Bobb, Rayan Ait-Nouri and Tijjani Reijnders were all on the bench against Bournemouth and are pushing for a recall, while Mateo Kovacic (ankle) remains out injured.

Dortmund: The German side will be without former Liverpool midfielder Emre Can, but they could have central defenders Nico Schlotterbeck and Niklas Sule back available after illness and injury, respectively.

City: Donnarumma; Nunes, Stones, Dias, Ait-Nouri; Gonzalez; Savinho, Reijnders, Foden, Doku; Haaland

Dortmund: Kobel; Schlotterbeck, Anton, Bensebaini; Couto, Nmecha, Bellingham, Svensson; Beier, Brandt; Guirassy

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