No Tuesday cruise for Blues

[sake]

Ben Linfoot previews Tuesday night's Champions League games and he thinks Chelsea are in for a tough night.


Chelsea will have to be wary of Maribor
Chelsea will have to be wary of Maribor

Champions League best bets

1pt Manchester City to win by a goal at 11/4

1pt Maribor (+2) to beat Chelsea at 15/8

1pt APOEL Nicosia to beat PSG at 6/1

It's crunch time in Group E for Manchester City, but they should kick-start their Champions League campaign with a first win in the competition this season when they travel to the Arena Khimki to face CSKA Moscow on Tuesday evening.

The two clubs met at the same stage of the competition at the same ground this time last year, when Manuel Pellegrini's men came from a goal behind to win 2-1 - thanks to two Sergio Aguero goals.

Judging by his form after he scored all four for City in their 4-1 win over Spurs at the weekend, Aguero could be the key man again. However, the layers are taking no chances, offering the Argentinian at odds-on to score at any time.

A better bet could be City to win by one goal, available at 11/4 with Sky Bet. The best odds on 1-0 and 2-1 correct scores in City's favour are 7/1 and 8/1 respectively - those prices dutched pay just over 3/1 and with the other less likely scorelines thrown in taking the 11/4 makes some appeal.

As mentioned above, City won 2-1 here last season, while Moscow will be no pushovers on their own patch given they are in good form domestically, winning their last six.

It's true they have struggled in the Champions League, losing to Roma 5-1 in Italy on Match Day 1, but they put up a better fight at home to Bayern Munich last time, going down by just the one goal in a 1-0 defeat.

City's brief will be to get the job done to get a first win on the board, so they won't particularly be looking to extend their advantage if they are just the one goal ahead going into the latter stages.

However, their undoubted superior quality should be enough and a narrow win looks highly likely. Certainly, at 11/4, it's worth a wager that advantage is just one goal.