Manchester City are halfway through the Champions League league phase but have plenty of work to do to qualify automatically for the knockout stages.
Manchester City have been predicted to be at risk of facing Real Madrid in a two-legged play-off in the Champions League following their heavy defeat to Sporting on Tuesday night.
The Blues have hit a ropey run of form with three straight losses in all competitions with their most concerning defeat coming in midweek against the incoming Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim’s side. City started the brighter and were in the lead inside five minutes through Phil Foden.
But once Viktor Gyokeres equalised late in the first half, the tide had turned. Maximiliano Araujo put the hosts into the lead almost immediately in the second 45 minutes before two Gyokeres penalties sealed his hat-trick and a 4-1 win for the Lisbon club.
The defeat leaves City 10th in the Champions League with clashes against Feyenoord, Juventus, PSG and Club Brugge still to come. In CSDB.gg’s latest Supercomputer which predicts outcomes on a team’s results and betting odds, City are anticipated to finish as low as 13th in the Champions League.
This would leave them as a seeded team for the knockout play-offs which is a silver lining considering seeded teams will have the advantage of playing the second leg at home. However, the Supercomputer also predicts that Real Madrid will finish 17th which means City would have the chance of drawing them in the play-offs and while Carlo Ancelotti’s side are in bad form, they have a habit of coming good, especially in Europe.