{"id":660628,"date":"2025-10-20T02:18:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T06:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=660628"},"modified":"2025-10-20T02:22:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T06:22:40","slug":"uefa-champions-league-matchday-3-predictions-manchester-city-vs-villarreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/10\/20\/uefa-champions-league-matchday-3-predictions-manchester-city-vs-villarreal\/","title":{"rendered":"UEFA Champions League Matchday 3 Predictions Including Manchester City vs Villarreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday action at the UEFA Champions League is part of matchday 3, with Premier League sides Manchester City and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/10\/20\/champions-league-matchday-3-predictions-including-arsenal-vs-atletico-madrid\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Arsenal among the teams participating<\/a>. Here is your look at all of matches from the world&#8217;s best club football competition.<\/p>\n<h2>Manchester City at Villarreal<\/h2>\n<p>Second in the Premier League (Manchester City) travels to third in La Liga (Villarreal) in a compelling clash. Manchester City haven&#8217;t lost for 8 consecutive matches and cruised past Everton on the weekend. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/09\/10\/erling-haalands-five-goal-game-pushes-norway-towards-first-world-cup-since-1998\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Erling Haaland<\/a> is flying for club and country right now. Villarreal were defeated by Tottenham earlier in the Champions League season,and are winless in their last three matches including a draw with Real Betis on the weekend. Villarreal would be without three first choice CBs including Juan Foyth. The Villarreal attack with Nicolas Pepe is relatively potent, but it&#8217;s hard to see how they can slow down a City attack with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/10\/14\/england-completes-perfect-qualifying-campaign-to-reach-2026-fifa-world-cup\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Jeremy Doku<\/a> and Haaland in-form. Prediction: <strong>Manchester City<\/strong> 4 Villarreal 2<\/p>\n<h3>Benfica at Newcastle<\/h3>\n<p>Newcastle haven&#8217;t been consistent this season, a loss to Brighton &amp; Hove on the weekend was another example of that. Eddie Howe&#8217;s side is talented, but the pieces are still coming together. Jose Mourinho&#8217;s Benfica also have a talented squad, but they are winless in the Champions League and are third in the domestic league so far with players like <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ThreadsFutbol\/status\/1970652331869098239\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Richard Rios failing to gel<\/a> into their new squad. Anthony Gordon and Nick Woltemade are the main men at Newcastle, while Joelinton could be out. Vangelis Pavlidis is the main man for Benfica. Playing at home, this feels like Newcastle&#8217;s night. Prediction: <strong>Newcastle<\/strong> 3 Benfica 1<\/p>\n<h3>Inter Milan at Union Saint-Gilloise<\/h3>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2241720269\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2241720269?et=0GNzUTDwRw1HNoKrQEds9Q&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=P7YfFO8KLHeDtVAr5TJN2P-DTYHzhxzb4b-Gr07Yb50=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Inter Milan has <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/cristian-chivu-commands-inter-milan-135000154.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">won six straight games<\/a> and look more like the team that made the Champions League final against the odds. A trip to Union Saint-Gilloise, who lead the Belgian league table and have only lost once in 11 domestic games this season, could still be a challenge. Inter Milan haven&#8217;t conceded in the Champions League this season, and Lautaro Martinez remains the best player on this team. These are two in-form teams, but it&#8217;s hard to deny Inter has the stronger squad. Only one first choice player, Marcus Thuram, is likely to be out for Inter Milan, and they will prove defensively difficult to defeat. Prediction: <strong>Inter Milan<\/strong> 2 Union Saint-Gilloise 0<\/p>\n<h3>Pafos at Kairat Almaty<\/h3>\n<p>Two of the smallest sides to ever play in the Champions League, Pafos from Cyprus travels to Kazakhstan to face Kairat Almaty. Almaty have been poor in the Champions League through two games, and appear outmatched, while Pafos has been brave. Both sides lead their respective domestic tables. Kairat has two of their better non-domestic players out with long-term injuries, the Pafos lineup looks more compelling, and they should manage a point. Prediction: 2-2 <strong>Draw<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>PSG at Bayer Leverkusen<\/h3>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2241786855\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.66667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/2241786855?et=nl7H5KiKTB5d9AjiDwBgag&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=ObmqK8YT-r9-y6-cNnY-jVC6-xeDcTvl51DQwUTgENE=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>PSG are a machine, but not an unbeatable one, while a rebuilding Bayer Leverkusen aren&#8217;t the easiest team to read. Leverkusen are 5th on the Bundesliga table, while a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/46348933\/marseille-stun-psg-end-champion-perfect-ligue-1-start\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">loss to Marseille<\/a>, sees PSG trailing their domestic rivals by a point in the Ligue 1 table. Bayer are much stronger at home, but with PSG coming off a UCL win against Barcelona, they won&#8217;t fear anyone. With Bayer missing up to six first-choice players due to injury, including Exequiel Palacios and Jarell Quansah, the odds are longer. PSG will play through Vitinha and Bradley Barcola as they are still mising Ousmane Dembele and Joao Neves. Prediction: <strong>PSG<\/strong> 3 Bayer Leverkusen 1<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: IMAGO \/ Every Second Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday action at the UEFA Champions League is part of matchday 3, with Premier League sides Manchester City and Arsenal among the teams participating. Here is your look at all of matches from the world&#8217;s best club football competition. Manchester City at Villarreal Second in the Premier League (Manchester City) travels to third in La [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1442,"featured_media":653277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[378,31833,2,8438,17,1267,1367,9367],"tags":[361,687,86,2867,674,100,1993,261,886],"class_list":["post-660628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","category-bayer-leverkusen","category-featured","category-inter-milan","category-manchester-city","category-newcastle-united","category-paris-saint-germain","category-predictions","tag-bayer-leverkusen","tag-benfica","tag-champions-league","tag-champions-league-predictions","tag-inter-milan","tag-manchester-city","tag-newcastle","tag-psg","tag-villarreal"],"modified_by":"Steen Kirby","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1442"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660628"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660638,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660628\/revisions\/660638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}