Champions League: Atalanta v Man City betting preview, free tips & TV details

Football tips, best bets and predictions for Atalanta v Manchester City in the Champions League.

Where to watch

Live on BT Sport 3, 8pm Wednesday

Best bet

Atalanta or draw double chance
1pt 28-17 RedZone

Back this tip with Coral

Team news

Atalanta
Striker Duvan Zapata, scorer of four goals in his last four games, is injured.

Manchester City
David Silva has joined Rodri on the sidelines. Alexander Zinchenko, Aymeric Laporte and Leroy Sane were already out. Phil Foden is suspended.

Match preview

It’s the Premier League not the Champions League that is focusing minds in Manchester at the moment and that is why City could be worth taking on in Milan.

City have got one foot in the knockout stage of Europe’s premier competition after winning their opening three Group C encounters, culminating in a 5-1 drubbing of Atalanta on home soil a fortnight ago.

That means they don’t need to take unnecessary risks at the San Siro – Atalanta’s European digs – especially with injuries piling up and, critically, Sunday's trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool looming large.

David Silva is the latest addition to the injury list so it’s likely that Pep Guardiola will make several changes.

And while Atalanta have failed to get as much as a point from their opening trio of assignments, Gian Piero Gasperini’s free-scoring Italian highflyers are impossible to write off.

They are on a mission to avoid humiliation in this competition and this could be their best opportunity to make their mark.

Certainly City, who made a couple of changes against Southampton last Saturday and were accordingly far blunter than usual, are hard to like at long odds-on. Instead, it’s the Atalanta or draw double chance that looks worthy of interest.

Atalanta are a side full of goals. In Serie A their matches produce more goals than any other team – 4.4 per game – and their three Champions League ties have produced another 13 goals.

Twelve of their 14 matches this season have produced over 2.5 goals, with ten returning over 3.5. Both teams have scored in 11 of their 14 games and they haven’t kept a clean sheet in eight.

They are fifth in Serie A because they score a lot more goals than they let in – and they have let in the same number as Spal, who are bottom.

Atalanta been a study in naivety throughout the campaign, creating chances, missing penalties and being exposed time and again on the counter. And that, of course, leaves them vulnerable in this tie, no matter what side Pep Guardiola fields.

City have looked suspect at the back ever since Aymeric Laporte got injured and with Rodri also sidelined you wouldn’t trust the visitors to repel the likes of Josip Ilicic, Alejandro Gomez and the in-form Luis Muriel, who has bagged eight goals and has stepped up to the plate in the absence of Duvan Zapata.

City have scored at least two goals in 15 of their last 16 matches and whichever front three Guardiola plumps for will be explosive.

But the Citizens manager will be wary of taking too many risks with Liverpool to come at the weekend and that has to give Atalanta a fighting chance.