Manchester Clubs Both in Champions League Action
- By A.J. Ryder on October 18, 2011 16:34 GMT
United and City are facing starkly different fixtures in the Champions League today as the blue side tackle Villarreal while United must deal with mysterious Romanian side Oletul Galati. Having just played their way to the top of their division, Galati host the English champions and trade as high as 14/1 to pull off a shock victory.
United are expected to roll in this one and Wayne Rooney is set to start for the first match in a while – his name has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons following the announcement of his three-game ban in Euro 2012.
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City are the significant favourites to beat Villarreal at home and they're priced at 1/3 while the Spanish are available at a lengthy 9/1. That's not a bad price considering that City haven't exactly found fifth gear yet in Europe.
It goes without saying that Rooney is the betting favourite to open the scoring in the United fixture and the bookmakers have him floated at 5/2 while Javier Hernandez – who scored the crucial equalizer after coming off the bench against Liverpool – is the 3/1 second favourite to notch the opening strike in the match.
Danny Welbeck has been seeing more match time in the past few fixtures and he's listed at 7/2 to open the scoring – something he has done on several occasions already this season. He tends to play better when Rooney and/or Hernandez are there to draw defenders into wider positions.
Nani should also get a start in this one and he's a solid 6/1 to grab the first goal. With question marks over Galati's ability to contain United's first-choice midfield line-up, you might fancy Nani to take his chances early.
Manchester United are not in the best shape in Europe right now with two disappointing fixtures to open their campaign. Goal difference could prove to be crucial in this group so you might expect Fergie to run up the score if it looks like United will make short work of their hosts.
In the City fixture, Sergio Aguero is the 7/2 first goalscorer favourite with Edin Dzeko trading at a 4/1 margin. Samir Nasri and David Silva both trade at 7/1.
A Manchester double is rewarding around 1.6 with most major bookmakers as both sides are heavily-favoured.
