Man City Women vs Barcelona Women predictions: A tight game in Manchester?

Manchester City make their return to the group stages of the Women’s Champions League on Wednesday when they host the current champions Barcelona at the Joie Stadium (8pm, watch on TNT Sports 1, DAZN and YouTube).

It is their first time in the group stage since 2020/21 after they fell short in qualifying in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

This time they secured their place in the main draw with an 8-0 aggregate win over Paris FC in Round Two qualifying.

A 5-0 win in Paris, was followed up by a 3-0 win at home with Jess Park, Chloe Kelly and Khadija (Bunny) Shaw all scoring twice.

This will be City’s first match in the main draw since losing 4-2 on aggregate to Barcelona in the 2020-21 quarter-finals back when the competition was a straight knockout format.

The Spanish side took control of that tie on home soil when goals from Asisat Oshoala, Mariona Caldentey and Jennifer Hermoso, gave them a 3-0 lead and Chloe Kelly missed a second-half penalty for the visitors.

Janine Beckie and Samantha Mewis scored either side of another Oshoala goal to secure a second-leg win for City but it wasn’t enough and Barcelona went on to win the trophy for the first time.

City are unbeaten so far this season, they started with a 2-2 draw against Arsenal, before securing home wins over Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United to take them top of the Women’s Super League.

Unsurprisingly, Barcelona have got their season off to a flying start with a team-record five consecutive Liga F victories, including two dominant wins in their last two outings.

They hammered Granada 10-1 before coming from behind to score eight second-half goals in Saturday’s 8-1 away win against Madrid CFF.

Pere Romeu’s side have conceded just four goals so far this season and scored 25, so City will have to be at their best if they are to stop them making it six wins on the bounce.

In this competition, the Blaugrana have reached the final in five of the past six seasons, losing to Lyon in 2019 and 2022 and winning it on the other occasions.

They have also won 16 of their 18 group fixtures, their sole defeat a 1-3 loss at Bayern Munich on Matchday 4 in 2022/23. It’s no surprise that football betting sites have installed Barca as favourites to win the competition for the third season on the bounce.

But City have lost only two of their last 12 home Women’s Champions League matches (W8 D2) and kept 10 clean sheets in their last 16 home European games and we expect this to be a close call.

Betting sites have Barcelona as the favourites at 3/5 but you can get 15/4 on a City win.

However, we’re confident that City have enough to get a share of the spoils from the contest with their firepower in the final third led by Shaw.

Given Barca’s form in front of goal, we can’t overlook their prowess to get on the scoresheet, but there’s enough to believe that these sides will cancel each other out with odds of 5/1 available for both teams to score and a draw on betting apps.

Man City Women vs Barcelona Women prediction: BTTS and draw - 5/1 Bet365

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