Final score to be ‘Real’ low

Manchester City and Real Madrid begin their two-leg Champions League semifinal on Tuesday afternoon.

Madrid’s best path to success in this fixture is to sit back and allow City the lion’s share of possession. Manchester City faced a similar predicament in its quarterfinal against Atletico Madrid, but opted for a conservative approach and was able to ride out a 1-0 victory across the two matches.

Real Madrid will offer more going forward than Atletico did, but because Madrid won’t press City and will likely just rely on a defensive posture, this match should be pretty low-event, as City won’t want to risk making a mistake and giving Real Madrid’s clinical offense many chances on the counter.

There are only so many paths this match could follow. A bet on the Under 2.5 (+110) or even a punt on the game ending 0-0 at +1150 are worth exploring.

THE PLAY: Manchester City-Real Madrid Under 2.5 goals.