Borussia Mönchengladbach will play Manchester City in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 tie at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
Stadium: Puskas Arena
Key Statistics
- This is Mönchengladbach’s first-ever UEFA Champions League knockout tie.
- They are without a win against Man City in all four of their previous Champions League games.
- Manchester City have won each of their last 18 competitive matches.
- They enter this tie with four straight wins against German sides in this competition, averagin3.5 goals per game in those encounters.
- They are also unbeaten in the last eleven CL matches played outside of England (W8, D3).
Borussia Mönchengladbach
Borussia Monchengladbach qualified for this stage of the Champions League ahead of Inter Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk. The German side were one of the most entertaining teams to watch in the previous round as they produced big results against Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
However, their form has dropped since their last CL match with their struggles causing them to drop to eight place in the Bundesliga standings. Their form heading into this tie does not inspire confidence as they are with one win from their last five games (D2, L2).
Marco Rose will be looking for a positive performance when they travel to Budapest for their first ever quarter-final game in the Champions League.
Possible Borussia Mönchengladbach line-up
Yann Sommer; Ramy Bensebaini, Nico Elvedi, Matthias Ginter, Stefan Lainer; Florian Neuhaus, Christoph Kramer; Jonas Hofmann, Lars Stindl, Marcus Thuram; Alassane Plea
Unavailable player: Doucouré (knee)
If there is something that Manchester City don’t like, then it’s not having the ball. We need to play with courage and defend with passion. I have a team that is absolutely capable of that.
Alassane Pléa is an incredibly important factor for us when he’s 100% fit, which unfortunately hasn’t always been the case lately. He has already shown what he’s capable of in Europe.
Marco Rose, Gladbach manager, before Manchester City match
Manchester City
After an early season struggle, especially in the league, Pep Guardiola’s side have been destroying everything that comes their way in recent times. They head into this tie as favourites and in the form of their lives.
The visitors have are on a run of 18 wins from 18 games and are unbeaten in 25 games in all competitive matches with their last loss coming as far back as November.
They remain the team to beat in this year’s CL and along with Bayern Munich have the best attack in Europe top five leagues. But they are even more impressive than the Bavarians in that they are hard to break down and have conceded just four goals in their last 15 games.
They will certainly fancy their chances against Gladbach who are struggling to keep out the goals.
Possible Manchester City line-ups
Ederson; Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, Joao Cancelo; Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden; Raheem Sterling, Ferran Torres, Gabriel Jesus.
Unavailable players: Aké (hamstring)
[Gladbach] arrive with a lot of people in the box and of course the players in the middle – Neuhaus and Zakaria or Kramer – know exactly what they have to do. They can change the shape, play with four or five. and the idea is quite similar. I cannot expect any different.Everyone is fit except Nathan [Aké]. We have to be focused on what we have to do. We are in the Champions League. They make a good build-up with short passes and they can also contact with their fast strikers with transitions. German teams are always so dangerous.
Pep Guardiola, Man. City manager before Borussia Mönchengladbach match
Betting Odds
Borussia Mönchengladbach : Draw : Manchester City :: 9.50 : 5.75 : 1.28
| Rank | Gladbach Goal | Manchester City Goal | Betting Odds |
| 1 | 0 | 2 | 7.00 |
| 2 | 0 | 1 | 8.50 |
| 3 | 0 | 3 | 8.50 |
| 4 | 1 | 2 | 9.00 |
| 5 | 1 | 3 | 11.00 |
Prediction
Borussia Monchengladbach 0—3 Manchester City
