Copenhagen v Manchester City predictions: Depleted Danes should be swept aside

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Copenhagen v Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 4, 5.45pm Tuesday

Best bet

Manchester City to win & over 3.5 goals
2pts Evs bet365

Team news

Copenhagen
Skipper Carlos Zeca and fellow midfielder Akin Amoo are out for the season. Rasmus Falk and Denis Vavro are new absentees. Nicolai Boilesen may make his first start for a month. Andreas Cornelius and Orri Oskarsson are doubts.

Manchester City
Kyle Walker, John Stones and Kalvin Phillips are out.

Match preview

Pep Guardiola is likely to ring the changes in Copenhagen but however his pack is shuffled Manchester City will surely notch up another routine win.

The City chief is in the privileged position of knowing he can rest a few players should he wish with the Premier League champions having already qualified for the last 16.

And that temptation will be even stronger given that City go to Liverpool on Sunday.

Immediately, punters will want to know whether Erling Haaland will start or be one of those given a night off with one eye on Anfield.

Haaland, around 15-8 to open the scoring, netted in Saturday's 4-0 demolition of Southampton on Saturday, perhaps surprisingly playing the full 90 minutes given the game was already won by the time he notched in the 65th minute.

That's ten straight games in which the Norwegian has scored and while Guardiola could easily give Haaland a half against Copenhagen – just as he did during last week's 5-0 thrashing of the Danes in Manchester – he could be equally tempted to stick Julian Alvarez up top since the young Argentinian looks a really decent understudy.

The Liverpool fixture will be on Guardiola's mind, that's for sure, although he's professional and respectful enough to know that Copenhagen will surely ask more questions than they did at the Etihad, where they totted up two shots, one corner and 25 per cent possession.

New Copenhagen coach Jacob Neestrup does not have much to play with. He is ravaged by injuries and needs to focus on improving his side's league form because they are miles off the pace.

Copenhagen's battle is not with City but with evilla in the race for third spot in Group G and a ticket into the Europa League.

And it isn't just City with one eye on the weekend. Copenhagen take on rivals Brondby on Sunday – it's the biggest club game in Denmark and Neestrup's men can ill afford to lose it if they want to retain any interest in the title.

Copenhagen have failed to win eight of their last ten in all competitions and have yet to find the net in three group games. When six-goal Pep Biel left for Olympiakos in the window it left them so short in attack.

It's hard to know quite what translates into value with City these days, but they have scored 44 goals in 12 matches, making it even harder to think of a reason to oppose them.

Backing City to win and over 3.5 goals is a bet that has landed in seven of their last 11 and it's worth going in again.

Key stat

The City-City half-time-full-time double result has already copped eight times this season.

Inside info

Copenhagen

Penalty taker Viktor Claesson
Assist ace Isak Bergmann Johannesson
Set-piece aerial threat Davit Khocholava
Card magnet Hakon Arnar Haraldsson

Manchester City

Penalty taker Erling Haaland
Assist ace Kevin De Bruyne
Set-piece aerial threat Aymeric Laporte
Card magnet Joao Cancelo

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