Goal Glut Between City And Greeks

English champions Manchester City take on their Greek counterparts Olympiakos as both sides look to tune up for the upcoming season which could see them paired in the Champions League.

Form
The Premier League winners were beaten in a penalty shootout by the runners up in last season’s title chase in the early hours of Thursday morning as Liverpool ran out 3-1 winners in a penalty shootout following a 2-2 draw in Yankee Stadium, New York.

After a scoreless first half City went ahead through Stevan Jovetic but Jordan Henderson equalised soon after, Jovetic grabbed a scrappy second at the mid point of the second half but Raheem Sterling’s well-taken goal levelled matters once more with five minutes to play and the game went straight to penalties after 90 minutes.

City were far from impressive from the spot as they missed their opening three from 12 yards while Liverpool scored two before Nigerian youngster Kelechi Iheanacho scored with his effort but it was too little too late as Lucas Leiva did likewise to confirm a 3-1 shootout win for the Reds, and the extra point to go with it.

City had hammered AC Milan 5-1 in their first International Champions Cup game, with Jovetic scoring another brace, and began their tour of the USA with a 4-1 win over Sporting Kansas City. Earlier pre-season games saw Manuel Pellegrini’s men earn a 2-0 win over Hearts but lose out to Dundee on a short tour of Scotland.

Olympiakos didn’t even make it to penalties against Liverpool in their most recent International Champions Cup Group B game as an early goal from Sterling did the damage they couldn’t fight their way back from in Chicago.

They began their tour of America brightly with an impressive win over Filippo Inzaghi’s AC Milan though, cruising to a 3-0 victory in Toronto courtesy of goals from Alejandro Dominguez, Dimitrios Diamantakos and a blistering strike from 35 yards by Andreas Bouchalakis to seal the points.

Greece’s most successful club side began their pre-season schedule with a 2-0 defeat to Russia’s FC Krasnodar and then drew 1-1 with Dynamo Kiev.

Team News
City will again be without striker Alvaro Negredo after the Spaniard broke a metatarsal in his foot which will put him out of action for about four months. Many of the City players who took part in the World Cup played a part for the first time this summer in their game with Liverpool with Edin Dzeko and James Milner both lining out from the start while Joe Hart and Yaya Toure came off the bench and all four should make an appearance here again.

David Silva may also take to the field for a first time in pre-seaon but Sergio Aguero, Martin Demichelis, Pablo Zabaleta and Vincent Kompany are unlikely to figure on the club’s tour of America though after featuring in the latter rounds in Brazil.

The Greek sides’s Spanish coach, former Real Madrid midfielder Michel, also has his World Cup performers to call on here so the likes of Andreas Samaris, Giannis Maniatis and Konstantinos Manolas could all line out.

Head to Head
This will be the first meeting between the sides as the clubs have never played a competitive fixture.

Recommended Bets
City are huge favourites here at 2/5 and although they should have too much for limited opponents it’s a skinny price for a team who coughed up plenty of chances against Liverpool and are far from their ideal fitness levels.

Both teams seem likely to find the net considering the 14 goals that have been scored in their last four games combined so 4/6 on that outcome looks a steal and the 11/8 on more than 3.5 goals could also reap rewards at 11/8.