Man City vs Leverkusen Prediction, 03:00 November 26: Pep Guardiola's 100th Time

Man City vs Leverkusen Prediction

Pep Guardiola is widely regarded as one of the greatest managers in history, despite being only 54 and having been in the game for over 15 years. Tomorrow morning, Pep Guardiola will reach the milestone of 100 Champions League matches with Man City.

Pep Guardiola has won three titles, twice with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, and once with Manchester City in 2023. With City, he has a total of 62 wins, 19 draws and just 18 losses. That would make Guardiola only the third manager to reach three figures with an English club in the European Cup/Champions League, after Alex Ferguson (190 with Manchester United) and Arsène Wenger (177 with Arsenal).

However, the above milestone probably doesn't bother Pep Guardiola as much as the 1-2 defeat to Newcastle last weekend. At a time when Man City was in good form and had a series of consecutive wins, they unexpectedly suffered a bitter defeat. This defeat caused Pep-team to lose second place in the Premier League to Chelsea and fall 7 points behind Arsenal. Their chance of competing for the championship is gradually decreasing.

If nothing changes, Man City will quickly shift their main target this season to the European Cup 1 - where they are unbeaten in 4 matches, have 10 points and are in the top group. Tomorrow morning, Man City welcomes tough opponents Leverkusen, but they promise to win another victory.

Leverkusen are reviving impressively under new coach Hjulmand, but they are still rated much lower than Man City. The red-black team is even weaker than Dortmund - the team that was crushed 4-1 by Man City at Etihad in the previous round. A similar scenario is entirely possible when Leverkusen's defense is significantly weakened compared to last season.

In fact, in the last two matches against the real "giants" PSG and Bayern Munich, Leverkusen were both defeated. They lost 2-7 to PSG at home and 0-3 to Bayern. Visiting Man City is an "overwhelming" task for coach Hjulmand's team even if they only aim for a draw.

It is worth noting that Man City are very strong at the Etihad, especially at the top of the table. Pep Guardiola's side are currently on a 23-match unbeaten run at home in the Champions League group stage/qualification round (W20 D3).

City's record against Bundesliga sides is good. When a German side beat City at the Etihad Stadium, Guardiola was the man who led Bayern Munich to a 3-1 victory in October 2013.

Head-to-head history Man City vs Leverkusen

This will be the first time City and Leverkusen have met in UEFA competition.

However, City have won their last 13 home Champions League games against German sides by an aggregate score of 49-13, losing just one of their last 24 European games against Bundesliga sides (W19 D4).

In contrast, Leverkusen have lost eight of their last 10 away Champions League games against English sides (W1 D1), including a 4-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield last season. Their only win and clean sheet in that period was a 1-0 win over Tottenham in November 2016.

Man City vs Leverkusen form

Expected lineup Man City vs Leverkusen

Man City : Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Rúben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Nico González, Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden, Savinho, Jérémy Doku, Erling Haaland.

Leverkusen : Mark Flekken, Jarell Quansah, Loic Bade, Edmond Tapsoba, Ernest Poku, Aleix García, Ibrahim Maza, Alex Grimaldo, Jonas Hofmann, Malik Tillman, Patrik Schick.

Predicted result Man City vs Leverkusen: 3-1

Source: https://tienphong.vn/nhan-dinh-man-city-vs-leverkusen-03h00-ngay-2611-lan-thu-100-cua-pep-guardiola-post1799360.tpo