Dortmund v Man City predictions: City could be made to fight for last-four berth

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Borussia Dortmund v Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 3, 8pm Wednesday

Best bet

Draw
1pt 10-3 general

Team news

Borussia Dortmund
England star Jadon Sancho could make the bench after six weeks out, Marco Reus and Mats Hummels should be fit. Dan-Axel Zagadou, Axel Witsel and Youssoufa Moukoko are out.

Manchester City
Aymeric Laporte is expected to be fit.

Match preview

Pep Guardiola can take one giant step closer to realising his dream of leading Manchester City to Champions League glory, but don't expect it to be a formality for the Premier League leaders in Dortmund.

Odds-on shots City made hard work of pipping Borussia Dortmund at the Etihad, and while they managed to keep Erling Haaland off the scoresheet last week they are acutely aware that Europe's hottest goalscoring property - and their own top transfer target - is rarely stifled for long.

Dortmund aren't in the greatest of nick, but Haaland is and with the Norwegian powerhouse ready to make life tough for Ruben Dias and his defensive colleagues, this could be a titanic tussle.

The layers fancy City and there's no denying that Dortmund are not having a stellar campaign by their own standards.

But this game is pretty much their season and having not only avoided a hiding in Manchester but also looked a real threat themselves, they can run the English side close.

Everyone presumes there will be plenty of goals – over 2.5 is around the 4-7 mark and both teams to score much the same. But there was only one goal after 84 minutes of the first instalment and both City's showdowns with Gladbach in the previous round were low-scorers.

Close is the watchword and this contest could easily end all-square with City managing their way into the last four.

Dortmund have lost six in a row against English opposition but they come into the game after a confidence-boosting 3-2 win at Stuttgart in the Bundesliga.

Eden Terzic's men are, however, plodding along in fifth in that division and getting detached from the four sides above them, but the threat they carry going forward is obvious. It's mistakes at the back which are proving costly – both teams have scored in 22 of their last 28 in all competitions.

They have banged in 58 goals in the league, haven't failed to score in a league game since September and it says much about Haaland's incredible eye for goal that it's noteworthy that he is currently on a three-game drought - his longest barren spell in 13 months. He has ten in the Champions League and set up Marco Reus for his side's precious away goal a week ago.

City, of course, can respond with bags of their own firepower although they were successfully blunted by a well-organised Leeds on Saturday. Guardiola's side had won 27 of 28 before being stunned by Stuart Dallas' double and the Spaniard will make at least a handful of changes from that disappointment.

They should get the job done, but we thought much the same against Lyon last summer. And most pundits thought the advantage they had going to Dortmund would be greater than it is. This could yet turn into something quite challenging for Pep's quad-chasers.

Key stat

Dortmund have scored at least one goal in each of their last 39 matches in all competitions.

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