Manchester City vs Steaua

Manchester City didn’t have very difficult job in the first leg of play-off round against Steaua last Wednesday evening, as the Citizens took impressive 5:0 victory and there’s no doubt that they will be playing in the group stage of this competition this season.

It was quite an easy game for the Citizens, who even missed two penalties during the first halftime, so the final result could have been even more in their favor. Silva, Nolito and Aguero seem to be working just fine, especially the third one who scored three goals, despite the fact that he was the one who missed the penalty kicks. Furthermore, they come from a 4:1 victory away to Stoke in Premier League last weekend, opening the season in a best possible way after their 2:1 victory over Sunderland week earlier. Aguero and Nolito scored both two each, showing their class early in August.

Central defender Vincent Kompany remains sidelined from the start of the season, as well as German duo midfielders Leroy Sane and Ilkay Gundogan, both without making a debut in the new season too. Right full back Bacary Sagna (1/0) should also be unavailable for this one as the game comes too soon for him.


Steaua already knows that they’ll need to get satisfied with a position in Europa League group stage after their bit disappointing performance seven days ago and five goals conceded in front of own fans. Nobody expected them to progress this time, however a bit better performance and more narrow result for the Romanian side were certainly expected.

At the same time, nobody will be very disappointed for a long time following such a score, since it wasn’t expected for them to have a real chance of progressing further. The team already had a domestic league game against Dinamo Bucuresti four days ago taking only a point in a 1:1 draw at home. After this result, they continued being second at the table, with a point less than Dinamo and a point more than Pandurii. There’s no doubt that the club already thinks more of their next domestic league games, but still wants improvement for the returning leg as well.

Same rotation is possible since the outcome is well known, while the team still needs to find their fluid performances and the coach needs to find out his best starting lineup for much more important games. Defender Filip Lucian continues to be injured without performing so far in the season. Defensive midfielder Mihai Pintilii (2/0), central defender Alin Tosca (3/0) and striker Bojan Golubovic (1/0) should not be playing due injuries. Offensive midfielders William (1/1), midfielders Fernando Boldrin (1/0) and Florin Tanase (2/1) are all cup-tied.

Even though the Citizens might appear in a bit more rotated squad here since the outcome is already known, I expect every single player of their to give his 100% in order to get another victory and present themselves in as good as possible image. Steaua is far below their quality and players who should aim to give their best in order to keep close to the starting lineup should prevail here with ease, once again.
Bet: Manchester City -2 Asian handicap @ 1.99