Champions League matchday 4 preview: Can Haaland score again?

The world’s best clash again for another week of Champions League football, and as the group stage progresses, points are becoming more and more valuable. Who has the strength to claim them before it’s too late?

We preview three key ties from matchday four.

Copenhagen v Man City

So far, it has been a straightforward Champions League campaign for Pep Guardiola and his men, who have cruised to three straight wins and only conceded once. It hasn’t been quite as simple for last season’s English champions in the Premier League, but they are title contenders as always and look to have one of the strongest teams in world football for another year running.

Well-fancied to go all the way in Europe’s premier football competition this year, City will hope to continue their forward momentum with another comfortable win here and at 1/8 to do so, only the bravest of souls will be betting against Erling Haaland and co.

Speaking of the serial goalscorer, Haaland has continued his unbelievable scoring run and is unsurprisingly only 5/1 to bag a hat-trick, something that has become a familiar sight this season. Terrorising defences for fun, it will be unlikely that he doesn’t net at least once (2/7), and even if he does hit a bad patch after his incredible streak, he will no doubt have an impact on the game in one way or another.

It is 7/5 that Man City win, over three goals are scored in the match, and Erling Haaland gets on the scoresheet.

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Rangers v Liverpool

It has been a tough start for Liverpool this season, who have shown little signs of producing their highest level in the Premier and Champions League. It is likely that the fantastic performances they displayed across four competitions in 2021/22 have come back to haunt them and left the players overworked and slightly burnt out.

Despite their difficulties, the Reds are always a threat and are still the 4/11 favourites to win against a strong Rangers team that created good chances in the reverse fixture. At 8/11, for both teams to score, we could be in for an exciting one and with both teams in need of the points, expect it to be hotly contested.

Rangers, who will undoubtedly struggle at the mercy of Roberto Firmino and Darwin Nunez, who combined effectively against Arsenal at the weekend, are a long shot at 17/2 to keep a clean sheet, something that Liverpool have also been struggling to do. Summing up Liverpool’s season, Jurgen Klopp’s men are 6/5 to avoid conceding themselves but are 29/10 to score four or more goals.

Barcelona v Inter Milan

The Barcelona revolution has shown signs of advancement, but every time it looks to get the wheels turning again, it is halted by a disappointing result.

Barca lost 1-0 in the reverse of this fixture with a below-par performance that saw them fail to convincingly threaten the Inter Milan defence while lapses in concentration at the critical moments of an Inter attack produced the match-winning goal.

Though they played well throughout the game, there seemed to be something missing; someone creating a spark, carrying the ball forward and bringing attacking teammates into the game – a certain name springs to mind.

Barcelona have bags of quality in their current team and will expect to win this fixture as the 4/9 favourites, though, as shown in very recent history, the threat of the 2020/21 Italian champions cannot be understated.

Inter are 6/1 to take another victory, and it is 4/5 that both teams will score. Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez will be Inter’s most significant threats to the Barca goal at 14/5 and 10/3 to score at any time, respectively. However it is Robert Lewandowski, one of the shining lights of Barcelona’s season so far, that is the favourite to net first at 2/1.

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