Champions League: Galatasaray vs. Manchester United odds, pick & prediction

Manchester United’s topsy-turvy season continued over the weekend with a 1-0 loss at home to Crystal Palace. It was the fourth loss of the campaign for the Red Devils, who now sit with a 3-0-4 (W-D-L) record and a -4 goal difference in the Premier League. It’s early yet and United has yet to be close to full strength for a match this season, but pressure is starting to mount on manager Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford.

A poor result against Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday and who knows what the headlines will read in Manchester on Wednesday morning.

Manchester United vs. Galatasaray Pick: Analysis

The good news for United is that they are big favorites against Galatasaray on Tuesday. Despite their poor start to the season and the fact that they’re coming off a loss at home to Crystal Palace, the Red Devils are still -235 on the three-way moneyline against the Turkish champions.

It may be hard to see it right now, but the most realistic outcome for this season is that United will start to trend up eventually. Even if there’s pressure on ten Hag to get results quickly, he did a terrific job with this team in 2022-23 and should have the Red Devils on track when they start to get somewhat healthy. But in the immediate term it’s really hard to feel confident about laying this kind of price with United, even if they are taking on a team from a much weaker league.

And even though the Turkish Super Lig is miles behind the Premier League in terms of overall quality and depth, Galatasaray has plenty starpower with the likes of Wilfried Zaha, Hakim Ziyech, Mauro Icardi. Dries Mertens and Tanguy Ndombele in its ranks.

That kind of talent makes Galatasaray quite an appealing underdog, especially at this price. Ziyech, Icardi, Zaha and Mertens may all be past their salad days, but they are quite a dangerous attacking outfit and should give this struggling United defense plenty of issues on Tuesday. What’s more is that the home-field advantage here could end up turning into a negative for the Red Devils. Manchester United fans are fed up with the club’s inconsistent results and a poor start to this contest could turn the Theatre of Dreams into a cauldron.

This match could get boiled down to a pretty simple exercise. We just saw Crystal Palace win at Old Trafford as a +487 underdog on Saturday. While Palace may be a better outfit than Galatasaray over the course of an entire season, the two sides are certainly not that far apart talent-wise. Unless you’re making a massive adjustment for travel, there’s no reason for the odds to be this much higher on Galatasaray only a couple days after Palace’s visit.

Manchester United vs. Galatasaray Pick

1. Galatasaray +600 (FanDuel)

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