A new era at Borussia Dortmund is about to begin as Lucien Favre takes the reins of the Bundesliga giants, and Saturday brings an early test for the new coach.
It’s Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund at Soldier Field in Chicago in the 2018 ICC, and Favre’s team will fancy their chances against a City side waiting for most of their players to return from Russia. But Pep Guardiola will expect his second string to perform and it all adds up to a fascinating clash.
For Dortmund, it’s the first of two games in 48 hours as they prepare to face another Premier League big hitter, Liverpool, on Sunday.
Talking Points
Make no mistake: Manchester City will get back to business quickly and will be determined to equal or better their exploits of 2017/18.
City’s record breaking season, winning the title with a month to spare and eventually amassing 100 points has opened the debate as to whether Pep Guardiola’s team is the best in Premier League history.
Manchester United fans will disagree passionately, of course, pointing to their treble-winning side of 1999; the Arsenal Invincibles of 2004 also have a claim for sure. But neither swept away the challenge of not one but five big-spending rivals, each with genuine ambitions to lift the EPL trophy.
The Premier League is as competitive as it’s ever been, and last season City dominated from start to finish. Pep Guardiola will be looking to recruit and has already captured the signature of Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez who will feature heavily at the ICC as City’s World Cup stars return to the fold in dribs and drabs.
The Algerian signed for a £60m fee, making him City’s costliest player. Is he better than what City already have? Well, that’s doubtful, but Pep Guardiola must believe he can get the best out of the mercurial talent. Put it this way, he’s unlikely to down tools at the Etihad!
Mahrez will be joined by Claudio Bravo, whose Chile team didn’t qualify for Russia, as well as Leroy Sane and Aymeric Laporte, who were unlucky to be left out of their World Cup squads.
New Dortmund coach Lucien Favre got off to a winning start last week as Alexander Isak scored the only goal in a win over Austria Vienna. The former Switzerland international has earned his spurs as a manager, taking Borussia Monchengladbach to third place in the 2015 Bundesliga. In his first season as Nice coach, he took them to their highest position in decades, third place, winning them a Champions League spot.
Favre is recruiting too, and his Swiss compatriot, midfielder Thomas Delaney, has made the £20m switch to Dortmund from Werder Bremen and that looks a good move for him.
Borussia Dortmund are the best-supported club in Germany, filling its 80,000-capacity Westfalenstadion at every home match.
The North Rhine club has a rich history as former Champions League winners and eight-time Bundesliga champions and are, according to Deloitte, the 11th biggest football club in the world.
It’s a big job for Favre, and he can begin to prove his credentials with a good performance against the Sky Blues.
You can see how he fares right here with all the Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund news.
History
City won all but one of their last six games while Dortmund won just one, though we are spanning the end of last season and a couple of friendly games for the German side.
The last meeting between these two teams was at the ICC in 2016 when Manchester City triumphed on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
The Sky Blues failed to beat Dortmund in three attempts before that, losing twice and drawing once.
What are the odds?
Well, the Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund odds tell a story of the relative strengths of the players available to each coach.
With so many players missing Manchester City start as underdog to win this game at SBOBET odds of 3.10, the draw is 3.30 and Dortmund are at 2.19 to win.
It looks like being a well-contested affair though, with a -0.25 goal handicap evening things up and making Dortmund available at 1.98, and with that start, Manchester City is slightly shorter at 1.94.
Under 3.00 goals is available at 1.88 with over 3.00 goals at 2.02, and two to three goals in total is favoured at 1.97.
And the most likely result is a 1-1 draw, the same as in the last encounter, which you can back at odds of 6.40.
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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