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With the psychology of City and Napoli, Barça is tested in England
The third and final installment of the Champions League Phase premiere will take place on Thursday night, with the Manchester City-Napoli game standing out on the schedule. Barcelona is tested in England against Newcastle, while Sporting Lisbon is the big favorite of the premiere against Kairat.
MANCHESTER CITY-NAPOLI (22:00)
With high morale, Manchester City and Napoli are thrown into the battle for the Champions League premiere. Both come from significant victories that boost their confidence. City prevailed with an emphatic 3-0 in the Manchester derby, while the Italian champions passed 3-1 from the home of Fiorentina.
The "Partenopei" are in excellent shape at the start of the season, counting the absolute of three wins, in contrast to Pep Guardiola's team who show ups and downs in both performance and results.
Nevertheless, the English enter the game as the big favorites, with Napoli's double having receded in terms of betting. The two teams have met four times in the Champions League, with City counting two wins, Napoli one, while their first duel ended in a draw.
More or less the same applies to the Newcastle-Barcelona pair.
Newcastle and Barcelona completed their last obligation in domestic competitions on a positive note and are now preparing for their debut in the group stage of the Champions League. The "Magpies" got psychology with their first victory of the season against Wolves (1-0), while the Spanish champions seem to be picking up speed, counting three wins and one draw in four games, while coming off a deafening 6-0 win over Valencia.
At the betting level, Barcelona's victory is offered at high prices, while the home performance is in decline. History is clearly on the side of the "blaugrana", who have three wins and one defeat against Newcastle in the Champions League, with their last match dating back to the distant 2003.
SPORTING LISBON-CAIRAT (22:00)
Sporting Lisbon enters the battle of the League Phase as clear favorites against Kairat Almaty, the big surprise of this year's qualifiers. The champions Kazakhstan threw Celtic out of the competition and in this way made history, winning a place in the "greats" of Europe for the first time.
The Almaty team is aware of the difficulties and demands of the new scene and enters the competition with a clear logic that any positive result will be a gain. In tonight's game, however, Sporting has the absolute lead and it will take a big upset to not confirm the predictions that want them to start on the right foot.