Manchester United vs Club Brugge Prediction and Football Tips – 18/08/2015
Champions League football tips – Manchester United vs Club Brugge prediction
Only Phil Jones is injured for Manchester United, which means Louis van Gaal could opt to keep Daley Blind in central defence or alternatively Marcos Rojo could partner Chris Smalling. United are expected to switch the midfield around which means we could see starts for Schweinsteiger and Herrera. Januzaj will look to build on his winner against Aston Villa, and Memphis or Javier Hernández could be deployed in the central role following a disappointing Rooney performance.
In the previous qualification stage Club Brugge went with an attacking 4-3-3 formation away at Panathinaikos and lost the game. I’m expecting them to line up very defensively at Old Trafford and they will the tough to break down. They have some promising young players in Tuur Dierckx and Bolingoli Mbombo who have both scored this season so far. Brugge will want to force United out wide by congesting the midfield with two defensive midfielders.
Possible Line-ups
Manchester United: 4-2-3-1 formation: Romero; Darmian, Smalling, Rojo, Shaw; Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger; Memphis, Herrera, Mata; Rooney
Club Brugge: 4-2-1-3 formation: Bruzzese; De Bock, Duarte, Mechele, Bolingoli Mbombo; Simons, Vormer; Dierckx; Víctor Vázquez, Oularé, Diaby
Statistics
- Manchester United have won 6, drawn 2 and lost 2 of their last 10 matches
- Club Brugge have won 4, drawn 2 and lost 4 of their last 10 matches
- Over the course of their previous 10 matches, Manchester United have scored an average of 1.2 goals and conceded an average of 0.7 goals per game
- Over the course of their previous 10 matches, Club Brugge have scored an average of 1.6 goals and conceded an average of 1.2 goals per game
- There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 3 of Manchester United’s previous 10 matches
- There have been over 2.5 goals scored in 7 of Club Brugge’s previous 10 matches
- This will be the first meeting between the two teams. Manchester United have a 100% home record against Belgian teams while Club Brugge have never won when they have visited England
After only two Premier League games Manchester United are unbeaten and haven’t conceded a goal. They look a lot more competent in defence after last season where they leaked goals and made countless errors at the back. If they begin to gel and score more goals Club Brugge will find it difficult to take a result back home for the second leg.
Club Brugge have won just once away from home in their last ten matches, and will not travel to Old Trafford with much confidence. However if they can grab an away goal it will be interestingly set up for the reverse fixture in Belgium. They will have to play the ball wide to find any success against a solid United midfield.
It’s difficult to look beyond Manchester United and their range of attacking options, and if they can formulate some fast counter attacks they could devastate Club Brugge. However Louis van Gaal will be concerned about potentially conceding a goal and traveling to Brugge with a precarious aggregate lead.
We say: Manchester United to win by 2 goals at 10/3 with Bet365