Barcelona vs Manchester City: Preview and Prediction

Barcelona vs Manchester City
UEFA Champions League – Group C
Date: Wednesday, 19th October, 2016
Kick-off: 19:45 UK.
Venue: Camp Nou, Barcelona.

The Wednesday’s Champions League Group C awaits one of the high profile encounters when F.C Barcelona play hosts to Manchester City. The occasions marks the return of Pep Guardiola for a second time to Camp Nou, with the previous during the 2014/15 Champions League Semi-Final with Bayern Munich.

Barcelona have made a perfect start to their Champions League campaign by winning the first two matches. The started with a 7-0 thrashing of Celtic at home, but were made to sweat hard by the Bundesliga side Monchengladbach in the 2-1 win at Borussia Park. The Blaugrana were a goal down at half-time, until Arda Turan and Gerard Pique scored two quick goals in the second half to bag full points.

While Manchester City couldn’t back-up their comprehensive 4-0 win on matchday 1 against Gladbach, when they visited Glasgow for the second fixture. The Scots showed their neighbours that they are no pushovers and held the Premier League giants to a 3-3 draw. However, this was always going to be a tough trip against a Celtic side who are unbeaten in all competitions at home.

Barcelona vs Manchester City: Head-to-Head Stats

The teams have met on 4 times in the Champions League and both two legged fixtures were in the round of 16 and Barcelona have won all the four matches.

FC Barcelona can also boast of a strong home record against Premier League sides in UEFA tournaments. They have won in 18 of the 30 matches at Camp Nou, with 10 draws and 2 losses.

Manchester City have travelled to Spain on 9 occasions to meet La Liga sides in a UEFA tournament. They did not have much luck as they tasted defeats on 9 occasions, while earned 2 wins and a draw.

Pep Guardiola returned to Camp Nou with Bayern Munich for the 2014/15 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, but were beaten 3-0 by his former club. But he managed to edge a 3-2 win back at Munich.

Barcelona vs Manchester City: Prediction

Barcelona have a strong home record in Champions League and were not beaten in the last 17 matches at Camp Nou since 2013. And 16 of them are wins with the last 12 wins coming in a row. They do not drop any points at this stage of the tournament, even when coming against teams of highest quality

Manchester City have a good enough squad, but they are yet to get familiar with Pep’s philosophy. They are currently on a three match win-less run in all competitions. After the draw against Celtic, they lost to Tottenham and were held by Everton to a draw. Under the circumstances, it is hard to see them trouble Barcelona at their own backyard.