Before we dive into the prediction of Saturday’s match let’s have a recap on the last two matches between the Spurs and the Citizens. 1st leg played at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in London and the 2nd leg was played at Etihad Stadium where Manchester City won scoring 4:3 but apparently lost after failing to achieve the UEFA Champions League aggregate score to qualify for the semi-finals. However, if the VAR results could have upheld Sterling’s goal the Citizens could have qualified with a 5:3 score.
Manchester City will be facing Tottenham Hotspurs for the third time this month after their last UEFA Champions League game played at Etihad Stadium. The first time the Citizens and Spurs locked horns this month was on 9th where Spurs having the home advantage managed to secure their place in the first round after Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) missed a penalty in the 13th minute and Son Heung-Min (Tottenham ) netted a goal in the 78th minute of play. The Spurs had to play a relatively defensive game with Manchester City manning a 59% possession despite being the away team. The first leg Champions League game between the duo ended with no drama as witnessed in the second leg UEFA Champions League match where VAR results had to determine the validity of two goals; that’s Fernando Llorente’s (Tottenham) goal scored in the 73rd minute which was validated and Raheem Sterling’s (Manchester City) goal which was canceled at the (90+3) minute of play due to an offside detection. In the second leg game, City had to win by two goals to proceed to the Semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League but considering that the game ended with a score of 4:3, the Spurs proceeded thanks to Heung-Min Son (Tottenham) who scored in the 7th and 10th minute of the second leg game offsetting the Raheem Sterling’s 4th minute goal which had almost slammed the Spurs’ hope of proceeding to the next UEFA Champions League level. Manchester City won in the second leg Champions league historical game but not with enough goals to proceed to the semis.
From the two matches, Spurs seem to have given the Citizens a hard time both home and away despite Manchester City’s explicit form.
Tottenham chances of winning in the Saturday EPL game are quite unpredictable with some of their key players out and Raheem Sterling probably starting the game. Raheem Sterling may go for his early minute’s score streak which may kill the morale of the Spurs who will also have to neutralize the CITIZEN’s revenge intentions after knocking them out of UEFA Champions League on 17th of April that’s midweek.
Pep Guardiola’s men now have only two cups to focus on that’s the EPL cup in which they are the defending champions and the FA cup finals they are to play later next month.
We are hoping that the host will be worth the bet considering that they really need to win this match and match their points to the currently leading team in the EPL table, Liverpool. The Citizens upon winning Saturday’s game will secure the first slot as they are advantaged by their high goal difference. However, still, the Spurs may not relent on their bid to put down Pep’s efforts now that they have managed to control City’s form in the last two games and a loss will kill their dream of being in the top four of the premier league table.
Tottenham may also preserve some of their top players since they will be meeting Ajax in the UEFA semifinals 1st leg on 30th of April 2019 at Tottenham Stadium , London.
Manchester City is hopefully going to score within the first 10 to 20 minutes of the play.
Predictions
1. 3 WAY
Home team win (Manchester City win)
2. Goals
Over 2.5
3. Goal-Goal
40% chance of a GG
4. Corners
5>9
Players to watch
Raheem Sterling (Manchester City):
Hoped to be the first goal scorer
Kelvin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
Creating a lot of chances and may even score
Sergio Aguero (Manchester City):
Will Score
Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City)
Should scorer: Maybe in the starting team since he was benched in the midweek game against Spurs
Heung-Min Son (Tottenham):
Hoped to score
Lucas (Tottenham):
Top assist and may score
Christian Eriksen (Tottenham)
Top Assist
Comments
From the Citizen’s formation, there is no losing chance as all the key players are on form, unlike the Spurs who are having many injuries with Sissoko being the latest Spur member to hit the bench after sustaining an injury in the last game against Manchester City.
We also hope that the Citizens will hold a 2 goals margin against Spurs. Additionally, Manchester City will be the host and they have not lost even a single game at home in their last 10 matches while the Spurs have won only 3 of their last 10 away matches.
