BARCELONA v MAN CITY, WED, 7.45PM, SKY SP5

on has given the Blues any chance whatsoever.

So looking at the odds, it is difficult to find a decent angle given that the home side are such overwhelming favourites.

The bookies are taking no chances at all in chalking up 4/9 about the home win. That’s with Betfred and is relatively generous given that some other layers have the same outcome at 4/11.

If you think Pellegrini’s boys can cause a bit of a scare and come away with a draw, there is plenty of 4/1 on offer in the high street.

It would help if City could keep 11 men on the pitch as they have had a man sent off in each of their three recent clashes with Barca.

Gael Clichy kept up that unwanted tradition in the first leg and he’ll be a big miss.

Form coming into the game could be better, with the English champs suffering a shocking run on the road, with just one win in their past five games.

That suggests there is something very wrong either with the tactics or the personnel on the pitch — and it looks like both given the insipid display at Burnley at the weekend.

Maybe they saw the claret in the home side’s shirts and panicked — imagine how the hapless Demechelis will do against Messi if he couldn’t handle George Boyd and Danny Ings.

So looking for a betting angle is tricky.

In the correct score market, it’s easy to see the home side putting three past City, with the visitors getting one back. So 3-1 to Barcelona looks the wisest bet in this market at 21/2 with BetVictor which is best value.

If you fancy a real hammering, the 4-0 and 4-1 home win are both on offer at 17/1 with the same firm.

Looking to the goalscorer betting, which one of Barcelona’s galaxy of talent will hit the back of the net first?

Given his prowess in the first leg and love of making English sides look stupid, it has to be Suarez at 9/2 with either Coral or Ladbrokes.

The more obvious choice of Messi is biggest at 10/3 with William Hill.

If you really do believe in fairytales, you can back City to make it through to the semifinal by any method at 10/1, while you can beat the building society by backing Barcelona at 1/14 with Coral to qualify.

That’s a slightly better than 7% return on your money for 90 minutes’ work.