Dinamo Zagreb vs Manchester City Predictions

• Dinamo Zagreb need to beat City to stand a chance of qualifying from Group C.
• Man City have scored more than two goals just once in their last five away games.
• After their derby defeat to United, City will be desperate to bounce back with a win.
• City beat Dinamo 2-0 when the teams faced off at the Etihad in September.

City aiming to get derby result out of their system

After a derby defeat that could have catastrophic consequences for their Premier League title defence, Manchester City will welcome the opportunity to leave their domestic woes behind them when the Champions League Group Stage resumes this week.

The Citizens are sitting pretty at the top of Group C having secured their passage to the competition’s knock-out round with time to spare, and are favourites to close out the first stage of the tournament with a victory in Croatia on Wednesday.

Pep Guardiola has the chance to shuffle his pack against Dinamo Zagreb with the weekend’s trip to Arsenal in mind, though the eccentric Catalonian manager generally likes to avoid making wholesale changes to his starting XI. That should ensure City field a team with more than enough quality to seal three more Champions League points on Wednesday.

Dinamo Zagreb need points

Dinamo Zagreb, currently locked in third position in Group C, need a win and a favourable result in the section’s other fixture between Shakhtar Donetsk and Atalanta to stand any chance of joining City in the next round, though their chances of getting the points they need look slim. Dinamo managed to win only one of their five Group C games overall since August, and though City needed a late Phil Foden goal to flesh out the final score of the teams’ reverse fixture at the Etihad in October, they really should have been out of sight before that.

City racked up 20 attempts on goal to Dinamo’s two on the night, and only some uncharacteristically poor finishing from Sergio Aguero, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling kept the score to respectable levels. Dinamo took four points from their two Group home matches so far against Atalanta and Shakhtar, and their return of seven goals from that brace of continental outings at the Stadion Maksimir suggests they have the attacking tools to trouble a City defence without a clean sheet in nine attempts.

Any goal they manage to notch is likely to be a consolation effort, however. The unbeaten Citizens have been a cut above the rest in Group C and Liverpool are the only team to have toppled City away from the Etihad in eight fixtures on the road overall.

City priced generously

Even with their domestic wobbles acknowledged, it’s extremely rare to see City priced so generously to win any individual game, and we recommend taking the opportunity to back them at the odds quoted this week.

Guardiola’s men will be desperate to get the derby result out of their system as quickly as possible, and they should have far too much quality again for an ordinary Dinamo outfit. The Croatians’ need for points is dire and their search for goals should leave plenty of space at the back for City to exploit.

Alongside our Man City to win prediction, we’re tipping the Citizens to win 2-1 in our correct score forecast. City are without a clean sheet in nine matches, though they conceded more than once on only three separate occasions during that sequence. At the other end, City have been a little off the boil of late on their travels, scoring more than twice only once in their last five away games. We expect that aforementioned combination of factors to influence the final score on Wednesday.