Guardiola's Bayern are unbeaten so far this season
Manuel Pellegrini's side come into this game knowing that anything other than victory will almost certainly signal the end of their European campaign, but Evan Bartlett believes a Bayern Munich side unbeaten in all competitions so far this season will be too much for them to handle...
Manchester City v Bayern Munich
Tuesday, 19:45 KO
Live on ITV 1
Match Odds
Manchester City must win against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night to maintain their hopes of qualifying from Group E. This game has become something of a regular fixture in the Champions League in recent seasons, with the sides meeting for the sixth time in four years. Bayern have come out on top overall, with three wins while City have beaten them twice, but on both occasions the group had already been decided.
Pellegrini's men are winless in the group so far and considering they are well behind Chelsea in the league, the Chilean manager will know that failure to qualify for the second round will deal a severe blow to his hopes of a long tenure at the Etihad, such is the strength of the club's owners' desires for European success.
City's opponents have been in formidable form so far this season, winning all four of their games in Europe including a 7-1 win away to Roma, and are unbeaten in the Bundesliga having scored 31 goals and conceded just three in their 12 games so far. The one piece of hope for City is that Bayern have already qualified for the second round and there is therefore a chance they may ease off slightly in this one, as they did in City's previous two victories against them, but otherwise all the other factors point to an away win.
City looked nervy in their 2-1 win against Swansea on Saturday, gifting too many opportunities to their opposition with an open looking defence. The ease with which Wilfried Bony ghosted in past City's offside trap for the opener must be of serious concern to Pellegrini, especially when he considers the likes of Thomas Muller, Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski could be pitching up at the Etihad on Tuesday.
The loss of Yaya Toure and Fernandinho to suspension as well as injuries to David Silva, Edin Dzeko and Aleksandr Kolarov all compound the uphill struggle facing City. Bayern come into this one after comfortably beating Hoffenheim 4-0, have won their last five games and look comfortable at the top of the Bundesliga. There's therefore no real need for them to take this one easy, they should be high on confidence and they look particularly attractive at odds of 2.26/5 to win this.
Over/Under 2.5 Goals
Both of these sides are renowned for their attacking play. While City scored over 100 goals in the league last year, they haven't quite lived up to that phenomenal record this season.
But an average of two goals every game is still strong and they will be forced to go on the attack here with the win being imperative. That will, however, leave them open to the counterattacking capabilities of Robben and co. Bayern have already scored 49 goals in all competitions this year and over 2.5 goals looks almost certain at 1.758/11.
First Goalscorer
Thomas Muller seems to relish playing against English opposition. The German has scored six goals in his previous ten appearances against English teams in the Champions League, not to mention his brace against the national team at the 2010 World Cup.
The attacking midfielder, a description which is probably far too simplistic for a player of his complexity, has scored twice against City before and his ability to drift in behind the defence and pop up in the right place at the right time always makes him a good option to score. As the preferred penalty taker for Bayern as well, providing he starts, Muller is well worth backing here at anything around 6.5n/a or above.
Recommended Bets
Back Bayern Munich to win @ 2.26/5
Back Over 2.5 Goals @ 1.758/11
Back Thomas Muller to score first @ 6.5n/a
You can follow Evan on Twitter @ev_bartlett
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