Manchester City vs Al Hilal Prediction: Quick start expected in Orlando

Manchester City thumped Juventus 5-2 in their final group game and as a result, were the outright favourites to win the Club World Cup ahead of the round of 16. Their first knockout match in this tournament comes against Al Hilal in the early hours of Tuesday morning (02:00 BST, live on Betfred). 

The Camping World Stadium in Orlando will host this key game, and below you can find my Manchester City vs Al Hilal predictions. 

Team News

Omar Marmoush led the line against Juventus, but we can expect Pep Guardiola to reinstate Erling Haaland to the starting XI for this tie after he bagged his 300th career goal off the bench. Rico Lewis will serve the final game of his suspension, while Claudio Echeverri unfortunately has an ankle injury that forced him to miss the Juventus win. 

He is likely to be out for the foreseeable future as a result, while Mateo Kovacic isn’t at this tournament due to his Achilles issue. Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden will also hope for starts behind the striker, while Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nico O'Reilly will tussle it out for the starting spot at left-back.

Football Odds

Al Hilal suffered a blow in attack against Pachuca as they lost captain Salem Al-Dawsari to a severe hamstring injury. His tournament is definitely over, so Mohamed Kanno could once again be given a starting berth. 

Joao Cancelo will come up against his former club, as he plays alongside Kalidou Koulibaly, Hassan Al Tambakti and Renan Lodi. Former Wolves man Ruben Neves will start in midfield along with Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, with Marcos Leonardo set to lead the line in the absence of Aleksandar Mitrovic. 

Manchester City vs Al Hilal Odds

Unsurprisingly, Manchester City are the favourites to win this match in 90 minutes, at 1/3. That gives them an implied win probability of 75% while Al Hilal are massive underdogs at 9/1. A draw can be backed at 9/2 if you fancy extra time, while over 2.5 goals is up at 4/7. 

BTTS may offer some value at 10/11, while Haaland is 11/4 to score first, while Marcos Leonardo leading the way for Al Hilal at 9/1.

Manchester City and BTTS @ 9/5

I think we should be in for an entertaining encounter in Orlando with plenty of goals. Given the attacking talent on show and the strength of the Premier League side, I think City will be able to progress to the quarter-finals. Guardiola’s side have been a relentless attacking outfit so far, scoring a remarkable 13 goals in three group stage matches, and will fancy their chances of notching a few more against Al Hilal. 

However, the Saudi outfit have plenty of attacking threat of their own, scoring three times in their group, including against the mighty Real Madrid. I think they will be able to find the net in this one, despite looking likely to exit the competition.

First goal time 1-10 minutes @ 11/4

Man City have proven themselves to be rapid starters at the Club World Cup so far, and I’m expecting them to continue that here - although this particular selection means that a goal for either side in the first 10 minutes wil land us a winner. 

In their opener against Wydad, Phil Foden opened the scoring within two minutes. In their second group game against Al Ain, Ilkay Gundogan found the net in the seventh minute, while against Juve, Jeremy Doku scored before the clock had reached double digits. 

I think we are getting good odds on the early worm to catch the worm yet again in this last-16 clash. 

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