Dynamo vs Man City Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Joel Amorim Feb 23, 2016 @ 01:26 am

Next Wednesday, 24th of February 2016, an extremely fragilized Manchester City will travel to the Ukraine to measure forces with the former European giants Dynamo Kyiv at NSK Olimpiyskiy Stadium for the first-leg of the 1/8 finals of the UEFA Champions League.

The Ukrainian title holders, Dynamo Kyiv, are back in the knockout stage for the first time since 1999-00 and they are ready to give Manchester City a hard day in the job. According to their highly experienced Ukrainian goalkeeper, former international Olexandr Shovkovskiy, despite Manchester City being a team of world stars, they have their problems and weaknesses as well and it is up to him and his teammates to make the best out from that. The 41-year old goalkeeper believes that if the team manages to stick to their game plan, they will be able to cause Manchester City a major upset.

Dynamo’s last competitive match was back in the beginning of December against Maccabi Tel Aviv. It was the last match of the Champions League group stage and their 1-0 win allowed them to walk through to the next stage of the tournament together with Chelsea and leaving the Israeli team and FC Porto behind. From that fixture onwards, Dynamo have only participated in preparation matches, having won the majority of them.

For next Wednesday’s clash against the Citizens, the former Spurs’ forward and current Dynamo’s head coach Serhiy Rebrov will not be able to rely on the services of the Portuguese left back Antunes, who is currently suspended. The team’s star Andriy Yarmolenko and the talented Ukrainian midfielder Serhiy Sydorchuk are both back in training and they will be available out there.

As for Manchester City, the English side, which has been going through an internal turmoil after the announcement of Pep Guardiola as their next season’s head coach,has also clearly been struggling on the pitch to claw the three points and they are on an unimpressive streak results with three consecutive defeats.

After succumbing to both Leicester and Tottenham at home in just eight days’ time, Manchester City were pushed off the FA Cup last weekend. Manuel Pellegrini’s men were severely hammered 5-1 at Stamford Bridge by a disheartened Chelsea, who have put up one of their best performances of the season. The Citizens’ boss opted for to offer some playing time to several young players of his team and ended up paying a high price for that.

For the predictably complicated visit to Kiev, Manuel Pellegrini will not be able to rely on the services of Samir Nasri, Eliaquim Mangala, Fabian Delph, Kevin De Bruyne and Jesus Navas, who are all currently sidelined due to injury.

Dynamo Kyiv

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WDWLW

Manchester City

Stats: W-2 L-3 D-0

Recent Form - LLLWW

Possible Line-ups

Dynamo Kyiv (4-2-3-1) – Shovkovskiy - Danilo - Khacheridi - Dragovic - Vida - Rybalka - Sydorchuk - Garmash - Yarmolenko - Gonzalez - Moraes

Manchester City (4-2-3-1) – Hart - Zabaleta - Kompany - Otamendi - Kolarov - Fernandinho - Fernando - Touré - Sterling - Silva - Aguero

Injury List / Suspended Players

Dynamo Kyiv - Antunes (sus)

Manchester City - Samir Nasri (inj) - Eliaquim Mangala (inj) - Fabian Delph (inj) - Kevin De Bruyne (inj) - Jesus Navas (inj)

Head-to-head matches:

League Positions