Man City Porto Odds : Mancini’s men now betting favourites for Europa League as Vítor Pereira heads to Etihad
Manchester City will be aiming to book their place in the next round of the Europa League on Wednesday evening when they host FC Porto at the Etihad Stadium.
Roberto Mancini’s men hold a valuable 2-1 lead from the first-leg after an own-goal and a Sergio Aguero strike handed them an excellent victory in Portugal.
They are now massive favourites to progress to the last 16, but they will be aware that they still have plenty of work to do. Porto are the reigning Europa League champions and they will not be giving away their title lightly.
City are starting to show signs that they are finding the winning formula at home in Europe though, with the 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich in the Champions League a big step forward, even if it wasn’t enough to progress.
Europa League Free Bets Offer from Paddy Power
Paddy Power have been in touch to tell us they will kindly offer free bets worth £100/€100 to all Footybunker.com customers to spend on this week’s Champions League or Europa League action! Pick up your exclusive £100/€100 with Paddy Power here! Be quick – limited offer!
Mancini will hope for a similar performance this time around with the aim of moving to the next round with as little drama as possible. A routine victory will be more than welcome for them.
As mentioned though, Porto will be far from content with letting City dominate them. Vítor Pereira’s men may have lost some key players last summer, but they responded to what was their first home defeat of the season with an away with to Vitória Setúbal and they will want more of the same in Manchester.
Their record in England isn’t great though. In fact, Porto have never won away to an English side in Europe. They do have fond memories of Manchester though after the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in 2004 saw manager at the time Jose Mourinho dancing on the sidelines.
The 2012 Porto team needs more than a 1-1 draw this time though. They need to come to the Etihad Stadium and win the game. It represents a tough challenge for them, but it makes the contest as a whole extremely fascinating.
Looking at the team news, City have no fresh injury concerns meaning that Mancini has many options to choose from in order to get the job done on Wednesday. As for Porto, they will be without injured right-back Danilo and the suspended Álvaro Pereira
