Crvena zvezda vs Manchester City prediction: EUROPE: Champions League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-12-12 17:45.
UEFA Champions League (UCL) Group G enters its final round of fixtures with nothing left to play for, as all four teams will finish in the same position in which they start the round. Red Star Belgrade will collect the wooden spoon just as they did in their two prior UCL group stage appearances, and now round off their campaign against table-toppers Manchester City, with the bookies making the Serbian club huge outsiders to beat the English champions despite some small positives for the hosts.
Regardless of their fruitless campaign, Red Star are playing for pride here and will want to end their campaign with a bang. Playing at Stadion Rajko Mitić provides the perfect backdrop for this challenging encounter then, since the hosts have lost just one of their last 28 home matches (W23, D4), whilst English sides have also felt the pressure of the hostile home atmosphere at this venue, with the Red-Whites losing just three of 11 such encounters in Belgrade (W6, D2).
City, winners of their UCL group for a seventh successive season, will be keen on bucking that trend as they aim to round off the perfect group stage campaign, having won each of their five games so far. The reigning champions are yet to experience the feared Stadion Rajko Mitić environment with this being their first ever trip to Serbia, although having incredibly lost just two of their last 34 UCL group stage games (W26, D6), they’re still heavy favorites to win here.
The Cityzens have the added motivation of defending their 19-game unbeaten streak in European competition (W14, D5), which currently serves as the record for an English club. Manager Pep Guardiola might be concerned by the noticeable drop-off in performance compared to his side’s usual excellent standards recently though, with their hard-fought 2-1 win over Luton at the weekend just their second victory in six matches (D3, L1).
Players to watch: Osman Bukari has scored the match opener in three of his last four goalscoring outings, including when his side went on to lose 3-1 to City in the reverse fixture. A second-half brace by Julián Álvarez dragged his team back into the game that day, starting a run which has seen all but one of his last six goals come after half-time.
Hot stat: There have been more than 3.5 goals scored in five of City’s last six UCL group games.