Man City v Monaco: Ligue 1 leaders look underrated at the odds

CHRIS Graham (@chrisgraham79) previews Man City’s clash with Monaco on Tuesday night in the Last 16 of the Champions League.

Manchester City v Monaco | Tuesday 19:45 | BT Sport 2

Everyone seems to be on the same page here and I find it hard to disagree that Monaco don’t look overpriced on Tuesday night. As big as 5/1 with Betway it seems the wrong price.

Leonardo Jardim’s side are having their best campaign this century and head Ligue 1 by three points from defending champions Paris St Germain and surprise side Nice.

Rehabilitation

Monaco lead the table by three point but in terms of goals scored they lie a massive 26 clear of the pack. They’ve notched 76 times in their 26 games and at the heart of that has been the rehabilitation of Radamel Falcao who has scored 19 times in 25 matches this season.

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In the big fixtures this season they’ve rose to the challenge. PSG were beaten early in the season and last month they secured a draw at the Parc des Princes.

In the Champions League they excelled in their group, finishing top of a section featuring Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham and CSKA Moscow. In many ways they look the real deal and not a 5/1 shot here.

Pep Power

The main asset in Man City’s corner is their manager and not many can better navigate this competition than Pep Guardiola. It’s fair to say though that’s he’s found it tough in the CL just like in the league with his City charges.

If the win against Barcelona hints at what City can produce when it all clicks for them, their failure to beat Celtic and costly goals against column (10) shows that they’re far off Pep’s former teams.

Man City’s weakness this season has been their defence and while things have improved in recent weeks you’d still have to think they’ll be vulnerable going into this tie.

Tribulations

The medium term absence of Gabriel Jesus is another bad blow for the club. He looked just the youthful tonic they really needed and their failure to score against Championship side Huddersfield on Saturday was a worry.

Sergio Aguero has a lot to prove in these kind of fixtures but you’d have to question whether his head is in the right space after the tribulations of recent weeks.

With Monaco such a big price it feels sensible to dip into the handicap markets and backing them with a goal start on the Asian market looks the call here.