In a game where the group winner had already been decided with Pep Guardiola’s team already confirmed as Group F winners ahead of second placed Lyon who of course surprised the footballing world when Lyon beat Man City on gameday one of this season’s Champions League in the Group F opener.
City are the only British team to make it through to the Champions League knockout round as group winners after City’s come-from-behind 2-1 win over Hoffenheim meaning they know who they could be facing and good odds are available from betting sites like this site as most teams opposing Pep will be underdogs vs City and you will likely get value odds if you like a true punt.
Pep’s club definitely know they won’t be facing Man United, Man City or Liverpool as teams from the same country are kept apart until the late rounds.
City join the following clubs as Group winners:
Borussia Dortmund
Barcelona
Paris Saint-Germain
Porto
Real Madrid
Bayern Munich
Manchester City
Juventus
Group Second Place Finishers are:
Atletico Madrid
Tottenham Hotspur
Liverpool
Schalke
AS Roma
Ajax
Manchester United
Lyon
Of those clubs City will surely prefer to avoid the always awkward and incredibly competent Atletico Madrid and last year’s semi-finalist Roma who always capable of a top class performance.
Citizens fans would possibly prefer Schalke, Ajax or Lyon but they will know very well that anyone who is a bethard could come a cropper as any team left in the competition is capable of beating anyone and Lyon have already shown that so City fans will be doubly cautious.
Liverpool only just scraped through with a 1-0 win at Anfield over Napoli last night while tonight United were solidly beaten by Valencia in Spain as the La Liga side won 2-1 while Man City simply crushed Hoffenheim and should have scored way more goals.
The game of the round was also in Spain as Tottenham came back from an early goal down at the Camp Nou last night to eventually tie up the game 1-1 as Harry Kane set up Lucas Moura for the late equaliser which with Inter’s 1-1 draw with PSV meant that Spurs just made it into the knockout round after having 1 point after the first 3 games.
So in summary the following fixtures are possible for the next round of the Champions League:
Manchester City can draw… Atletico Madrid, Schalke, Ajax, Roma.
Liverpool can draw… Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Porto, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus
Manchester United can draw… Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, PSG, Porto, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid.
Tottenham Hotspur can draw… Borussia Dortmund, PSG, Porto, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus
We will wait for the winter break in the competition to finish now as the clubs will resume the knockout round in the spring with Real Madrid looking to win a record 4th Champions League title in a row – something that does not look very likely right now given their rather poor form in La Liga.
It really will be interesting if Man City draw Lyon having beaten them once, lost to them once and with massive transfer rumours swirling linking Lyon’s Houssem Aouar with a mega money move to the Etihad Stadium.