Sports Blog 16/08/2016: UEFA Champions League Qualifying Play-Off 1st Leg – Steaua Bucharest vs Manchester City, Tuesday 16th August 2016

After an unconvincing start to the new season can Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City kick it up a gear in their Champions League play-off 1st leg against Steaua Bucharest at 7.45pm on BT Sport 2?

Even if a win is a win, a 2-1 victory over Sunderland thanks to an 87th minute own goal from Paddy McNair was hardly the illustrious Premier League debut City fans were hoping for from Guardiola. Yet it is still a team adapting to the new order; Joe Hart was left on the bench, his new manager favouring Willy Caballero, while summer signings John Stones and Nolito made their first league starts for their new club. Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane are both yet to feature thanks to injury, though that adds another 2 players for the team to absorb in the coming weeks.



While Guardiola won’t relish a frustratingly mid-week match this early in the season, Tuesday’s game should give City another chance to bed in before Saturday’s trip to Stoke. Guardiola is continuing to ruffle a few feathers, with Yaya Toure left out of the squad heading to Romania having been nowhere near Saturday’s game against the Black Cats. In slightly more positive news, Sergio Aguero, who opened the new season with a 4th minute penalty at the weekend, goes into the game at a Super Mega PGM of 54-62, followed by Nolito at 23-28 and Kevin de Bruyne at 21-26.

City’s opponents are Romanian Liga 1 runners-up Steaua Bucharest, who have already been busy in Europe AND are 3 games deep into their domestic season. The side pulled off an impressive 3-1 (on aggregate) victory over Sparta Prague in the UCL 3rd round of qualifying, an away draw followed up with a 2-0 win in the Arena Nationala. All 3 of those goals came from last season’s top scorer Nicolae Stanciu, the 23 year old at a Super Mega PGM of 11-15. Given that Guardiola has in part been brought into increase City’s chances of finally winning the Champions League it is unthinkable that they would go out before the competition proper. In other words, our trader are expecting an away win, offering a Man City/Steaua Bucharest Goal Supremacy spread of 1.1-1.3 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.65-2.85.