Champions League tips: Manchester City vs Bayer Leverkusen best bets, predictions and preview

Kick-off: 20:00 GMT, Tuesday

TV: TNT Sports 1

It may still be November but Manchester City’s hopes of another Premier League title should be over.

Saturday’s defeat to Newcastle sees them seven points adrift of leaders Arsenal who are showing no signs of slowing down. Further emphasis is therefore placed on a successful European campaign.

Pep Guardiola’s side are in a good position for a top-eight finish here at least. Three wins and a draw puts them in a strong position given that Real Madrid away is, on paper at least, their only remaining challenging game to come.

Xabi Alonso is at the helm there and his former club Bayer Leverkusen – the one he guided to the Bundesliga title – are the visitors for City on Tuesday. It’s another contest which should end in a home win.

Leverkusen have been good under Kasper Hjulmand but it’s the two defeats and the nature of them which catch the eye.

They were hammered 7-2 by PSG in this competition in October while they were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Bayern Munich in the league a couple of weeks later.

It’s no surprise to see the goals line of 2.5 is best-priced at 4/11, but you can bump that up significantly by taking BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE at 5/6, with 4/5 elsewhere also a good price.

I won’t waste your time by telling you about Manchester City’s attack. If you’ve watched football before you’ll be aware that they’re typically better than most other teams.

It’s Leverkusen we should focus on, a team who have scored in 13 of their 14 games under Hjulmand’s guidance – that’s a run which includes every Champions League game.

They’ve been creating but as we’ve seen from games against top sides they’ve had issues limiting them at the other end too.

While attention may be elsewhere given the fixtures on offer on Tuesday night, this is an appealing route for a City home game.

Odds correct at 1140 GMT (24/11/25)

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