Borussia Dortmund vs. Man City Betting Tips: Two tips as Haaland makes his return to BVB

Erling Haaland returns to the yellow wall on Tuesday evening as Manchester City head to Germany to take on his former side Borussia Dortmund having already secured qualification to the Last 16 of the Champions League, knowing a point guarantees they top the group.

Having played three times in the last couple of years there feels to be a little bit of a rivalry building between these sides, with all three of their encounters creating absolutely box office entertainment despite finishing 2-1 to City on all three occasions.

The meeting between the two earlier this campaign was characterised by Manchester City’s late comeback after it seemed Dortmund had executed the perfect smash-and-grab. The Citizens scored twice in four minutes to cancel out Jude Bellingham’s opener, with Haaland manoeuvring his leg absurdly high to turn in Joao Cancelo’s pinpoint trivela cross.

The meeting before - in last season’s Champions League quarter finals - also saw City come from behind to cancel out a Bellingham opener, though their equaliser was certainly one that came about controversially. The visitors were awarded a penalty for a handball by Emre Can that felt harsh, with the ball deflecting off his own head directly onto his outstretched arm.

It caused uproar among the Dortmund players, but not more so than the decision that could have changed the trajectory of the first leg back at the Etihad Stadium. With City leading 1-0 through an early Kevin De Bruyne goal, Jude Bellingham (yes, again) embarrassed Ederson by nicking the ball off his toe before cooly slotting into an empty net.

All the replays showed that the young England midfielder had won the ball fairly, but the goal was disallowed and City were awarded a free-kick, with Bellingham finding himself booked, in what still feels like a huge injustice to this day. City went on to win the game through a 90th minute winner from their own youngster Phil Foden, and then of course went on to win the tie.

Emre Can often has a torrid time against Manchester City and having been handed the key defensive responsibilities in the Dortmund midfield, there’s a chance he suffers here too.

The German midfielder-turned-defender-turned-midfielder-again has been booked in one of his three appearances against the Blues in the famous ‘Black and Yellow’ and gave away the penalty that let Pep Guardiola’s side back into the second leg last year.

The former-Liverpool man will be more familiar with his opponents than those around him having faced them several times whilst on Merseyside and has picked up six bookings overall in just 11 starts against them.

So far this season he has been used sparingly but has still earned three Bundesliga bookings despite only starting two games, as well as picking up another in the cup game against Hannover 96.

Taking charge of this one is absolute basket-case Davide Massa, who plies his trade in the top two divisions of Italian football.

In five games across Serie A and Serie B this season, the banker has dished out 28 yellow cards (5.6 per game) and averaged 5.05 per game last season too - plus five red cards.

His most recent European outing saw him take charge of Group D game between Marseille and Sporting Lisbon, in which he dished out four yellows and a red card inside 45 minutes.

There has been no stopping Jude Bellingham in the Champions League so far this season, and he’s turned in three fantastic performances against tonight’s opponents already in the last 18 months.

The teenager has netted in each of his last two against the English Champions and, as mentioned above, scored a perfectly legitimate goal that was ruled out in the other.

He’s also been in the best form of his life so far this season, and most recently bagged a fantastic brace against Stuttgart at the weekend - marking his first Bundesliga goal(s) since January to add to the assist he notched against FC Koln at the start of the month.

It’s cup competitions that have really been his bread and butter, and particularly the greatest one of them all.

He’s bagged in all four of his starts across the continent so far this term - finding the net against City, Copenhagen and Sevilla (twice) - and has carried that form on in the DFB Pokal, netting against both 1860 Munich and Hannover 96.

He should’ve had a goal in the league before this weekend too, having created 2.27 expected goals on the season before the Stuttgart game.

I’ll admit I was surprised to see a price this high for a player that has five goals in his last six games, and I wouldn’t put anyone off taking the 35/1 about him to score and be carded with Betfair either.

He’s been booked in two of his three games against Manchester City and has picked up three more in his 11 Bundesliga starts.