Manchester United are heavy favorites at CSKA Moscow in their UEFA Champions League Group Stages clash tomorrow night. This despite being without the services of both Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini.
Midfielder Juan Mata, however, doesn’t see the match as a cake walk; not at all. In his latest blog post, the Spaniard described CSKA Moscow as being a very difficult challenge for his team.
On a side note, Russian strongman Vladimir Putin is reportedly green-lighting an extreme use of force against would be hooligans, in attempt to prevent the kind of riots that we’ve seen in other European countries.
Without further ado, here is The Sports Bank’s Man United starting XI prediction (4-2-3-1)
Romelu Lukau
Anthony Martial Henrikh Mkhitaryan Juan Mata
Nemanja Matic Ander Herrera
Ashley Young Phil Jones Eric Bailly Antonio Valencia
David de Gea
Odds: Oddschecker backs United at 5/7 to win, while setting odds for a draw at 29/10. The line for a CSKA Moscow victory is now at 19/4.
Kickoff: 7:45 pm BST
Mourinho press conference video: go to this link
Injury Report, match preview, team news: go this link
Prediction: Manchester United 2, CSKA Moscow 0
As always, feel free to post your own Man United starting XI prediction in the comments section, and to opine on any other formations that you’ve seen online.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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