Manchester City has itself a really tough road to sow over the course of the next several months. The Citizens not only have a crowded Premier League docket left to tend to, but a replay coming up in the FA Cup against Huddersfield as well. Now, to make matters worse, they have to prepare for a Tuesday night affair with AS Monaco in the biggest tournament of all, the Round of 16 of the Champions League.
At 2:45 p.m. ET, tune into FOX Sports 1 for live television coverage of this Champions League match on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, at Etihad Stadium.
Soccer Odds at BookMaker.eu
Manchester City -165
AS Monaco +440
Draw +330
Over/Under 2.5
Odds Analysis
We saw some crazy results last week in the UCL, but Man City is hoping to see some normalcy return on Tuesday night in Manchester. The Citizens are -165 moneyline favorites and are giving a goal on the Asian Handicap. That said, that isn't a convincing margin for sure, and that's why Man City is only a -220 favorite to advance into the quarterfinals, a place that Pep Guardiola routinely brought Bayern Munich in his last managerial stop.
The total is set at 2.5 with -148 vig on the over, and that's really a tell from last week when games were flying over the total with ease in these first legs of home and home fixtures.
How They Got Here
City was never going to win Group C, and it has to be happy just to be at this point in the competition, especially after a couple really shaky results. A 3-3 draw against Celtic in the opening round was probably the most eye-opening of the bunch. The good news is that the team did hand Barca a loss here at the Etihad, and it did lose just once along the way, but three draws in four matches against Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic just flat out didn't cut it.
Monaco was drawn into a really tough Group E that included four teams that legitimately could have won the group. CSKA Moscow turned out to be a paper tiger, but the French side did well to get four points in three away matches, including coming here to England and three points at White Hart Lane against Tottenham.
Recent Form
Monaco has been in good enough form of late. The team did only draw against Bastia 1-1 on the road last weekend, but that came on the heels of four straight wins across all competitions. That result in Bastia was really the only bad result in quite some time, as this team is 9-3-0 in its last 12 matches in regulation, with the draws coming in the cup against Sochaux ( a match won on penalties ) and in Ligue 1 play at PSG, a task that is never easy for anyone in France.
Manchester City is coming off of the bad performance at Huddersfield that nearly saw it out of the FA Cup in the fifth round. The Citizens did win at Bournemouth in their last EPL match, but they've had this habit of being either really, really good or really, really bad all season long.
Free Soccer Betting Pick
You just wonder if Monaco can get something out of this first match to bring back to France with it. This is a good side, particularly in defense, and Benjamin Mendy will want to show himself well in this match against a team that might be begging for his services in the next transfer window.
If the French side can figure out how to frustrate Sergio Aguero, the Citizens have already proven they don’t have a heck of a lot of other places to turn to. Killing the 90 minutes seems like a legitimate possibility here, and that would set City up for a potentially hair-raising 90 back at Monaco.
Champions League Odds: Manchester City 0, AS Monaco 0
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