Last month, AS Monaco and Manchester City served up one of the greatest games the Champions League has ever produced. Goals were expected between two sides stacked with attacking flair but no-one could have predicted a see-saw battle which saw City eventually claim a 5-3 victory after giving up an early lead, having Wilfredo Caballero to thank for saving a penalty and three goals being scored in the final 20 minutes of the match. More of the same is expected when the return leg takes place in Monte Carlo on Wednesday night, but do not necessarily bet on similar fireworks occurring at Stade Louis II.
If you regularly bet on sports online, you will be inclined to bet on over 2.5 goals or both teams to score, but if you assess Manchester City's last 11 performances in general, the back-and-forth nature of the Monaco showdown was a freak event. Over the course of the season, much has been made of City's performances in defence since the arrival of Pep Guardiola but their results since the middle of January suggest that the Spaniard is either slowly getting to grips with how to get the best out of his players, or his first-team squad have now accepted that they must get themselves in line with a manager who has shown very little movement when it comes to tinkering with his tried-and-trusted philosophy.
You would be well advised to take a look at a guide for betting websites when assessing your options ahead of a fixture which has the potential to throw up any result, but since January 18, City have kept seven clean sheets in 11 outings, with only seven goals being conceded during that period. Take the Monaco game out of the equation and you can see that there is an argument for City boasting the best defensive record over the past two months. It should be noted that City have only faced one of the top eight teams in the Premier League table in building up such impressive statistics, but much of City's play is based on confidence. They are going to come up against some of the best players and brightest talents in the world on Wednesday night, but they are currently playing with the know-how to make light work of the second leg of the last-16 tie.
While teams are struggling to breach City's defence at the moment, Guardiola's side are also having little problem in creating a bagful of opportunities at the other end. However, their belief in the final third is not as high as it should be at the moment because many of those chances are being wasted. While Sergio Aguero has six goals in his last five matches and Leroy Sane is finally starting to show the form which Guardiola would have expected earlier in the campaign, City have scored just four goals in their last three matches, which have come against Sunderland, Stoke City and Middlesbrough respectively. City are likely to find a potentially crucial away goal against Monaco, but they have been far from clinical of late and it certainly isn't a foregone conclusion.
To add to the case for the match not featuring half of the goals of the first leg, Monaco striker Radamel Falcao is a doubt for the game due to injury. The 31-year-old has scored 21 goals in 28 matches this season and netted doubles on three occasions in his last seven matches, but he has played just 25 minutes of football in the last three weeks and is nowhere near full fitness. Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar and Valere Germain all chip in goals but they all fall well short of Falcao's tally and it would be a big blow to Leonardo Jardim if the Colombian attacker cannot play a full part in the contest.
If you are betting on this match, it is extremely difficult to place a bet with any real conviction but with bookmakers expecting another goal rush when the French and English sides collide, it may be worth taking a gamble and backing City's defence to lead them in the quarter-finals.
