Manchester City will be looking to maintain their perfect start in the Champions League when they welcome Greek giants Olympiacos to the Etihad for Tuesday's showdown.
The Citizens eased to a 3-0 win over Marseille in their most recent European fixture, while Olympiacos suffered a 2-0 defeat to Portuguese champions Porto on matchday two.
Match preview
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After a few underwhelming runs in the Champions League, Man City firmly have their eyes on the prize for the 2020-21 campaign, and Pep Guardiola's men have already asserted their dominance over Group C with two convincing victories against Porto and Marseille.
The Citizens followed up their 3-1 home win against the Portuguese champions with a comfortable 3-0 triumph when they crossed the channel to take on Marseille, although the French outfit did themselves no favours with a couple of mistakes - something which can never be afforded even against a City side without a recognised striker.
Indeed, with Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus both on the treatment table, Ferran Torres was thrust into an unfamiliar central role, but the young Spaniard notched up his second goal in as many Champions League matches at the Orange Velodrome, with Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling completing the rout in the second half.
City enjoyed another away victory with a clean sheet at the weekend following their win in France, but Guardiola's men only managed the one goal against a struggling Sheffield United side at Bramall Lane, with former Blade Kyle Walker returning to haunt his old club on Halloween with a thunderous first-half strike.
City will certainly be expected to prevail in this one given their strong form in the month of October, but Guardiola's men face a behemoth of a match against Liverpool before the international break, which is sure to come into the Spaniard's thinking as he looks to strike a balance between rotation and wrapping up the group as quickly as possible.
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Olympiacos will be desperate to avoid becoming City's next victims, but the Greek champions will not be all that optimistic after they succumbed to a 2-0 defeat to Porto on matchday two.
Goals from Fabio Vieira and Sergio Oliveira saw Porto triumph in the battle between the two domestic champions, with Olympiacos unable to carry the momentum forward from their dramatic late victory over Marseille in their opening group-stage match.
Nevertheless, Pedro Martins's men managed to recover from their dampening defeat in Portugal as they asserted their dominance over the Super League at the weekend, with the current table-toppers marching to a 2-0 victory against Apollon Smyrnis on Halloween thanks to a quickfire double from Ahmed Hassan.
With City expected to maintain control of the group and secure top spot with minimal trouble, the fight for second place is very much on heading into the midway point, with Olympiacos, Porto and Marseille potentially all sitting on three points from as many matches should the latter overcome Porto and Olympiacos lose to City this week.
Tuesday's game represents the first ever meeting between Man City and Olympiacos, and the Greek giants will need to produce an exceptional performance if they are to make the long journey from Piraeus count for something.
Manchester City Champions League form: WW
Manchester City form (all competitions): DWWDWW
Olympiacos Champions League form: WL
Olympiacos form (all competitions): DDWWLW
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Guardiola will most likely have to make do without both recognised strikers in Aguero and Jesus once again, meaning that Torres can look forward to another start up top, although Jesus is getting closer to a return and has a slim chance of being involved.
Defensive duo Fernandinho and Benjamin Mendy both remain on the treatment table, but Nathan Ake returned from injury to make the bench at Bramall Lane and could be in line for a start here.
Gundogan and Phil Foden should also come back into the first XI as Guardiola looks to keep his players fresh, with Eric Garcia and Oleksandr Zinchenko potentially set for recalls to the defence.
As for Olympiacos, Martins will be without a trio of players owing to coronavirus cases, with Mady Camara, Ousseynou Ba, and Hillal Soudani returning positive tests over the past week.
Hassan may drop to the bench despite his brace at the weekend, with Youssef El Arabi, Mathieu Valbuena and Yann M'Vila all likely to come back into the first XI.
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Cancelo, Garcia, Ake, Zinchenko; Rodri, Gundogan, Silva; Mahrez, Torres, Foden
Olympiacos possible starting lineup:
Sa; Rafinha, Semedo, Cisse, Vinagre; M'Vila, Bouchalakis; Randjelovic, Valbuena, Masouras; El Arabi
We say: Manchester City 3-0 Olympiacos
Guardiola is sure to rotate given the hectic fixture schedule and next weekend's match with Liverpool to contend with, which could allow some up-and-coming players to be given a runout in Europe. However, City's starting lineup is sure to evoke fear into the hearts of the Olympiacos faithful regardless, and we cannot see any other result than a dominant win for the hosts to make it three out of three in the Champions League.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 2.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Over 2.5:data
Ben Knapton
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Manchester City win with a probability of 67.88%. A draw had a probability of 18.6% and a win for Olympiacos had a probability of 13.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Manchester City win was 2-0 with a probability of 11.08%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (9.96%) and 2-1 (9.77%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.78%), while for a Olympiacos win it was 0-1 (3.94%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with an 8.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Manchester City would win this match.
