Basel vs Manchester City Prediction, Betting Tips and Match Preview. Check the match preview, betting tips, useful info and football predictions for the match between Basel vs Manchester City in Champions League.
Basel vs Manchester City Match Preview
Basel have one of the toughest tasks in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, as they come face-to-face with the Premier League champions – Manchester City. This first leg of Basel vs Manchester City Champions League fixture will be played at the St. Jakob-Park on Tuesday, February 13.
Basel
To say that Basel are just making up numbers, though, would be undermining their efforts in the league stage. They finished second in Group A behind Manchester United with 12 points, winning four of their encounters and losing two. However, they would have loved a better fixture than drawing the most dangerous side in Europe right now. However, they wouldn’t mind starting as underdogs in this Basel vs Manchester City fixture. The worry for the hosts, though, is the fact that they have just returned to competitive action at the start of February after their winter break. And, the return didn’t go according to plan as they lost at home against Lugano, although they got back to winning ways last weekend. They have won nine of their last ten competitive fixtures, but is that enough to score an upset win over City?
Manchester City
Pep Guardiola’s side is so far ahead in the Premier League, that it is almost a foregone conclusion that they are going to be winners there. The challenge for Pep and his side is to do well on the continental side and losing in this Basel vs Manchester City fixture is not an option! They have some injury concerns, but the squad is so balanced that it is frightening to see the likes of Sergio Aguero come as a second-choice striker – literally – and score four goals to win the league game last weekend. The Argentinian is just one of the many attacking options that Pep has, across the field, and that makes this City side a tough one to face.
Basel vs Manchester City H2H
This will be the first competitive meeting between the sides and what a time to do that!
Basel vs Manchester City Team News
For the hosts, Vailati is out, while Balanta and Zuffi are both doubtful.
Though Leroy Sane and Fabian Delph were back in training for City, they may not be available for this fixture. David Silva is a doubt too, while Gabriel Jesus and Benjamin Mendy are out of contention.
Basel vs Manchester City Probable Line-ups
Basel XI: Vaclík; Lacroix, Suchý, Balanta; Lang, Frei (Zuffi), Xhaka, Petretta; Elyounoussi, Van Wolfswinkel, Oberlin.
Manchester City XI: Ederson; Walker, Otamendi, Laporte, Zinchenko; Fernandinho, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling; Agüero.
Basel vs Manchester City Prediction
It will be an uphill task for the hosts to make an upset in this fixture, considering the fact that City are on a winning run here – only one loss in their last 17 matches in all competitions. They have been scoring goals for fun which means there should be goals in this fixture from the visitors. We are backing over 2.5 goals in this match and are also backing Aguero to find the back of the net any time in the game.