Pep Guardiola holds the Champions League trophy in June (Picture: Getty)
Manchester City are ready to embark on their crusade to win a second straight Champions League title and the big question is, who is going to stop them?
It certainly won’t be anyone in Group G as the holders will waltz through a section containing RB Leipzig, Young Boys and their opening opponents at the Etihad Stadium, Red Star Belgrade (AKA Crvena Zvezda).
City demolished Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals en route to last year’s final and the gap between the two clubs is still wider than Harry Kane’s move to Bavaria can bridge.
They then effortlessly brushed aside Real Madrid and Jude Bellingham’s switch to the Bernabeu doesn’t make up the difference there either.
Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, last year’s finalists Inter Milan and Manchester United are also nowhere near as good Pep Guardiola’s top-drawer outfit.
The only team who can scupper City’s European dominance is City themselves.
Perhaps they won’t be up to scratch in the final or will be denied by bad luck or a controversial decision but there’s no way anyone is going to beat them over two legs in the knockout stages.
Erling Haaland can open the scoring against Red Star Belgrade (Picture: Getty)
Lump on Pep’s crew to lift the glamorous trophy at Wembley on Saturday, June 1 at 9/4 with Sky Bet and Betfred.
As for the opening fixture, well West Ham played very well and took the lead against a weakened City side at the London Stadium on Saturday but were still soundly beaten.
It was an off-day for Erling Haaland, who missed several sitters before finally scoring, but the Premier League champions still ran out comfortable 3-1 winners and that doesn’t bode well for Belgrade.
The perennial Serbian champions lack top-level European experience and you shouldn’t go wrong by backing over 4.5 goals at 7/5 with Paddy Power and if you want to be greedy over 5.5 is 16/5 with Betfair.
Haaland is 15/8 to break the deadlock with the same two firms but also have a few quid on Phil Foden at Sky Bet’s 13/2.
• AC Milan were walloped 5-1 by Inter at the weekend but had won their previous three Serie A matches and are 13/8 to beat unconvincing Newcastle in the San Siro.
Celtic face an equally daunting time in Rotterdam where Feyenoord are 8/13 to triumph with SpreadEx and stick the Italians and Dutch in a treble with Atletico Madrid, who are 8/5 with BetUK to win at Lazio.
• Preston, Ipswich, QPR and Port Vale form Tuesday’s Football League yankee.
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