Manchester City vs Tottenham Hotspur 18/04/19

18 April 2019

Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur go toe-to-toe at the Etihad Stadium for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-finals tie as the visitors hope to capitalize on a 1-0 win from the first leg.

Desperate to secure their first Champions League semi-finals appearance since the 2015-16 campaign, the hosts go into this meeting off the back of a 3-1 road win over Crystal Palace in the Premier League. The Citizens have not only racked up a 12-game home winning streak across all competitions, but nine of those triumphs have seen them beating their rivals to nil while conceding precisely one goal per match in the remaining three. Moreover, after suffering a shock 2-1 home loss to Lyon in the opening CL fixture, the reigning PL holders have won all of their next three CL home clashes, netting 15 goals while allowing barely one in the process. Surprisingly, goals have been in short supply in City’s recent competitive outings, with four of their previous five games featuring under 2.5 goals, while just one has produced goals on both ends.

Meanwhile, the visitors’ sudden rise in form has seen them gone from two straight defeats to three successive victories across all competitions. Interestingly, all three of Spurs’ last wins have come at home, with Maurizio Pochettino’s men beating their rivals to nil each time. A huge problem for the Argentinean manager could be Tottenham’s disastrous road form in the recent period, as the London outfit suffered six losses on their last seven road trips across all competitions (W1, L6). Notably, the Spurs have conceded precisely two goals per match in all of those six failures while failing to find the net twice along the way. Additionally, the last time Tottenham managed to score over 1.5 goals per match away from home dates back to late January (2-1 against Fulham) having struggled to score in the first half in six of their previous seven road fixtures.