Manchester City vs Sporting CP Betting Odds and Prediction 3-9-22

Manchester City vs Sporting CP Betting Preview

WagerTalk soccer handicapper Kevin Dolan offers his Manchester City vs Sporting CP betting preview for Wednesday, March 9 in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16. The Premier League leaders will carry a 5-0 aggregate advantage into Wednesday’s second leg.

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Wednesday, March 9	UEFA Champions League Betting Notes
Manchester City:	-650
Sporting CP:	+1500
Draw:	+800
Total:	3.25 Goals (Odds Above Courtesy of DraftKings)
Game Time:	3:00pm ET / 12:00pm PT

Manchester City vs Sporting CP Analysis

Manchester City holds a commanding 5-0 lead over Sporting Lisbon from their first leg, and with progression to the next round all but assured, it’ll be interesting to see how Pep Guardiola approaches this game on Wednesday night.

With just two wins from their last six overall and with a six-point gap now opening up domestically against league leaders FC Porto, Sporting are in somewhat of a bind here themselves, with head coach Ruben Amorim potentially opting to focus on a much more winnable game against struggling Moreirense on Monday.

Both teams have a split 2-2 H2H record in Europe, however Manchester City has won the last two encounters with Sporting not having beaten City in 10 years.

Sporting’s Rough Few Weeks

With just two wins from their last five away from home domestically and a loss to league leaders FC Porto in the Taca de Portugal Cup as well, it’s been a rough few weeks for Sporting. They were definitely not helped by the absolute demolishing they got at the hands of Manchester City in that first leg, and it’s hard to see what Ruben Amorim’s men can do here in terms of overturning that.

Sporting was out-shot 15-to-3 in that first leg and enjoyed just 36-percent possession against a rampant City team, but far from being a poor performance in that game, those stats have been Sporting’s averages all season.

Despite qualifying for the knockout stage of this competition ahead of Borussia Dortmund and Besiktas, Sporting finished bottom of the group in overall possession, bottom in pass accuracy, bottom in assists and second-from-the-bottom in total shots per game as well.

City Setting Records

Manchester City’s 5-0 demolition of Sporting away in the first leg of this tie was tied for the highest winning margin in a Champions League away game in the competition’s history.

Far from being happy with that performance however, head coach Pep Guardiola said after the game that he was unhappy with certain players ‘underperforming’ in that game and that he wanted more.

He certainly didn’t get that in his next game as Manchester City surprisingly lost to Tottenham 3-2 at home in a really impressive result for the Londoners, but since then City have been dominant, allowing just one goal over their last three matches in all and routing crosstown rivals Manchester United 4-1 at the weekend also.

Manchester City vs Sporting CP Prediction

Despite the expectation that Pep Guardiola will rotate his squad ahead of this tie, it nevertheless has to be City or pass in this one.

Manchester City has such depth in the squad that even the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling, two world class players, were unused substitutions in Sunday’s win over Manchester United, and that depth should prove far too much for Sporting again here.

Ruben Amorim may opt to be pragmatic ahead of this game, and while Sporting will no doubt want to avoid further embarrassment in this one, they’ll know their chances of progressing through to the next round in this tie are almost non-existant.

Manchester City has a wealth of attacking talent at their disposal and even their second string team should have more than enough to overcome Sporting again here on Wednesday.

Take Manchester City -2 on the handicap line in their Champions League knockout stage clash against Sporting CP in England on Wednesday.

Interested in placing a bet on Wednesday’s Manchester City vs Sporting CP clash in the Champions League? Caesars Sports is offering up to a $1,500 match bet for first-time deposits in New Jersey, West Virginia, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona, New York and Louisiana.

Stoppage Time | European Soccer Predictions

Join Carmine Bianco, Kevin Dolan, Pavlos Laguretos, and Nick Borrman every Tuesday at 10am ET / 7am PT for Stoppage Time as we break down the biggest matches in Europe. On this week’s episode, we discuss this week’s featured matches in the Champions League and Europa League, including Liverpool vs Inter Milan; Real Madrid vs PSG; Sevilla vs West Ham; and Atalanta vs Bayer Leverkusen.

WagerTalk Live Odds Screen

WagerTalk’s live odds screen features odds from a variety of domestic and offshore sports books. Track the moneylines and totals for this week’s UEFA Champions League matches, including this Manchester City vs Sporting CP showdown, from your desktop or phone.

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Meet the Author

‘The sharpest sports mind in Ireland’ is how one prominent newspaper dubbed Kevin Dolan after he became the first foreigner ever to win the World Series of Handicapping tournament back in 2015. “The Irishman” made his start wagering on GAA, football, soccer and boxing, all to immense success. Since becoming a professional bettor, he has since lit up the sports betting scene in the U.S. and abroad, winning two handicapping awards and writing a best-selling book on sports handicapping named ‘The Complete Guide to Sports Betting’.

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