Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund

At 2am on Saturday (UK time) Borussia Dortmund are playing Man City on Soldier Field in Chicago.  In the absence of any proper football, that will have to do us lads.  This is the first of three games for City on US soil- they will also be playing Liverpool in New York and Bayern Munich in Miami.  Now there’s a decent away trip if ever I’ve seen one.

Man City’s squad to tour the US has thrown up some major talking points.  Understandably, the vast majority of City’s players who featured in the World Cup aren’t travelling.  In fact, it’s only Mendy (coming off a long-term injury) and Bernado Silva who make it out of City’s World Cup players- which doesn’t leave them with very much left.

There are a few interesting inclusions, however.  Rihad Mahrez will be out to prove he’s not been signed as a £60m bench-warmer and former England ‘keeper Joe Hart can see this tour as something of a last chance saloon.  He’s certainly a better option than Claudio Bravo, and if he’s happy getting enormous wages to play in the domestic Cup competitions and watch Ederson do his stuff, he’ll want to be staying at City.

Another notable inclusion in the squad- and another man with a point to prove- is Leroy Sane, inexplicably left out of Germany’s World Cup squad.  The rest of the City tourists are largely reserves and youth team players, who will of course be out to show Guardiola what they can do.

Dortmund looking to improve

Dortmund’s squad is nearer full strength as they had far fewer of their staff on duty in Russia.  However, how seriously either side will take Friday night’s game is anyone’s guess, full as the tour is of media obligations and the like.

Whilst fourth in the Bundesliga is respectable enough for Dortmund, City’s reserves won’t exactly be quaking in their boots when they face off against a side who finished two points ahead of RB Leipzig last season.  As with all preseason friendlies, the value will probably be with the outsiders.

On to the betting.  Whilst it’s hard to get too involved in preseason friendlies, as with all other matches, make sure you get the team news before you take the plunge.  If Mahrez, Silva, Mendy and Sane start then 11/5 City to win (Betfred) certainly looks a bet.

Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund Betting Tips

One market that we don’t play very often is the Half-time/Full-time market.  For the uninitiated, it’s essentially a double on the first half result, going on to result in the second half.  This market becomes much more appealing during friendlies, particularly if you like a long shot.  18Bet will be our port of call here.  Substitutions often make preseason punting nigh-on impossible but they could play into our hands here.  It’s not unheard of for entire elevens to be switched at half-time in these games.

The City-Dortmund double result is 25/1 with the aforementioned firm and if you want to bet Dortmund to be winning at half-time but City to win the match you can get 30/1 on your money.  We’ll be backing both.  The elevens in each half could be of completely different standards which makes this bet far more interesting than on your average saturday during the season.

Before we go back to our World Cup hangover, there’s one more market that’s worth a look.  First Goalscorer.  Again, obviously, we’ll have to look at the starting XIs but if he doesn’t start we get our money back anyway so it’s no great concern.  Leroy Sane could easily be only World class player on the pitch when the game kicks off.  If he is, we’ll be having a look at 1XBet’s 5/1 he finds the net first.

Apologies that pickings are slightly slimmer than normal but it makes sense to keep the powder relatively dry before Premier League comes back again in a few weeks’ time.

Best of luck, and enjoy the game.