Tuesday 16 August 2016 22:55, UK
Will Manchester City join Leicester, Arsenal and Tottenham in the Champions League group stage? The Soccer Saturday pundits think so.
Romanian runners-up Steaua Bucharest will be looking to cause an upset at the National Arena on Tuesday, with Sky Bet making them 11/2 outsiders for the Champions League play-off first leg, despite home advantage.
Charlie Nicholas, Paul Merson, Matt Le Tissier and Phil Thompson all believe that Pep Guardiola's men will comfortably prevail over two legs to reach the first hurdle of the competition proper - but they had mixed views on the Spaniard's early impact after watching City seal only a narrow 2-1 win in their Premier League opener against Sunderland...
I don't see any problems for City at all here. Their players are all trying to take in what Guardiola wants from them and he's got them on edge.
I said Joe Hart would be under scrutiny and Samir Nasri and Yaya Toure aren't fit enough for what he demands.
Only David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and John Stones are guaranteed starters under Guardiola because they represent what he's trying to do, but he's made a statement and shown he's the governor.
I wouldn't be surprised if he put Hart back in goal because that's what he did at Barcelona, but I don't think he'll have too much to do anyway.
Charlie predicts: 0-2 and De Bruyne to score first (22/1 with Sky Bet)
It's a nice draw when you look at some of the other teams they could have had, which is handy as I didn't see much in them at the weekend.
They looked like the same old City against Sunderland, still moving the ball slowly and thinking they can just turn up in those sort of games and win.
I don't see them keeping too many clean sheets this season either, but a lot of Guardiola's buys are for the future so that's a positive thing for City fans.
Merse predicts: 1-2 and Aguero to score first (18/1 with Sky Bet)
I think City will be far too strong and even though we don't know too much about this Steaua team, they'll be scratching their heads trying to work out what system Guardiola will go with after Saturday.
It was actually Steaua that knocked Southampton out of Europe a few years ago but I can't say I've seen too much of them since.
I'd imagine it will be a nice comfortable night for them and Aguero should get plenty of chances.
Le Tiss predicts: 0-2 and Aguero to score first (15/1 with Sky Bet)
I can actually see it being difficult for the first half-hour against a side who have kept three successive clean sheets, but they should be able to find a way through.
This is a massive game for Steaua and I wasn't particularly impressed by City against Sunderland, putting in a performance that was typical of the big clubs at the weekend, with Chelsea and United also uninspiring in their wins.
They had a lot of first-half possession and should had wrapped it up and then, as we saw a lot over the weekend, were nearly punished by not killing the game off.
Thommo predicts: 0-2 and Aguero to score first (15/1 with Sky Bet)
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