Manchester City are still waiting for their first Champions League win. In the last decade, something has always gone wrong in the knockout stages, and on Tuesday, Leipzig come to the Etihad Stadium. The first match ended in a draw (1:1). Slavko Vinčić from Maribor will be the judge.
The two teams met in Manchester already on September 15, 2021, in the opening match of the group stage of last season. City was better with 6:3. The excellent striker Chistopher Nkunku scored a hat-trick, but the defence red bulls was very bad.
City are still in contention for three trophies. They are five points behind unrelenting Arsenal in the Premier League. Erling Haaland scored a decisive goal from the penalty spot against Crystal Palace (0:1) at Selhurst Park on Saturday. On Saturday, the Blues will host second division side Burnley in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. The schedule will be even more condensed in April, when the season will break and there are still many possibilities for some kind of slip-up.
Guardiola last won the Champions League 12 years agoPep Guardiola won the Champions League in 2009 and 2011 with Barcelona’s golden generation. The Catalans beat Manchester United both times in the final (2:0 and 3:1). In the summer of 2013, he went to Munich, where he took over a strong Bayern team. At that time, Jupp Heynckes led the Bavarians to the triple crown. In three seasons, he was always knocked out in the semi-finals against the Spanish giants. In Munich, many critics still mention that the famous Guardiola has never played in a Champions League final. He led City to the final in May 2021, but was beaten 1-0 by Chelsea in Porto. The recognized expert has therefore been waiting for the “cup with big ears” for 12 years.
“Leipzig play very aggressively, they are very good at covering the whole pitch. It is very difficult to control the match against them. We will have to find the right rhythm. I hear many times that we are the main favorites for the title. The truth lies on the green, where 95 minutes of battle await us. There are no bad teams in the playoffs. We are all in Manchester for the laurels. We want to conquer them. All coaches and players want to win the Champions League. I don’t know a coach who wouldn’t want to lift the prestigious trophy“, Guardiola emphasized at the press conference.
Kevin De Bruyne added: “I know the Leipzig team very well and we have a tough game ahead of us. We have already played in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and once in the final, but we still don’t have the title. We also want to win the Premier League every year. It is difficult to determine who is the best in Europe. Everyone has their own opinion, we don’t just play in the Champions League. “
Rose: We will only do it if we play the best game of the seasonLeipzig eliminated Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-0 on Saturday. He is seven points behind the leader Bayern, and there is still a fierce fight for a breakthrough among the top four, which leads to the Champions League next season as well.
“We are aware that we are playing against an extremely strong team. We have to play with confidence and courage against City. We will only advance if we play our best game of the season. They only have Erling Haaland. We stopped him very well in the first game, but he is absolutely impossible. City have many players who are at the highest level in the world,” thought Rose, who reckons he’ll be able to help Dani Olmo for 20 minutes. He’s not capable of more than that at the moment.
Conceicao: We will not adapt too much to InterIn the second game on Tuesday, Porto will try to make up for the minimal deficit against Inter. Milan won the first match 1:0, Romelu Lukaku scored four minutes before the end at San Siro.
Porto is in second place in the championship. They are eight points behind Benfica and have no real chance of winning the title. The people of Lisbon, who are already in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, have experienced only one defeat in the entire season.
“In the second leg, it will be necessary to play very smartly. The backlog from the first match is minimal and there is no need to play offensively from the first minute. In such knockout matches, patience is the key and not just an aggressive approach. We won’t adapt too much to Inter, we have to get the most out of our style of play,” mused coach Sergio Conceicao.
Round of 16, second legs, Tuesday at 21:00: MANCHESTER CITY – RB LEIPZIG 1:1
Probable lineups:
Man. City: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Ruben Dias, Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Grealish, Gündogan, De Bruyne, Haaland.
Leipzig: Blaswich, Henrichs, Orban, Gvardiol, Raum, Laimer, Kampl, Szoboszlai, Forsberg, Werner, Andre Silva.
Judge: Slavko Vinčić (Slovenia)
PORTO – INTER 0:1
Probable lineups:
Oporto: Diogo Costa, Pepe, Pepe, Marcano, Zaidu, Grujic, Uribe, Eustaquio, Galena, Taremi, Toni Martinez.
Inter: Onana, Škriniar, Acerbi, Bastoni, Darmian, Barella, Calhanoglu, Mhitarjan, Dimarco, Martinez, Lukaku.
Judge: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)
Wednesday at 21:00: REAL MADRID – LIVERPOOL 5:2
Probable lineups:
Real Madrid: Courtois; Carvajal, Eder Militao, Rüdiger, Nacho, Modric, Tchouameni, Kroos, Valverde, Benzema, Vinicius Junior.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Konate, van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Bajcetic, Salah, Gakpo, Nunez.
Judge: Felix Zwayer (Germany)
NAPLES – EINTRACHT FRANKFURT 2:0
Probable lineups:
Naples: Meret, Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Kim, Olivera, Zambo Anguissa, Lobotka, Zielinski, Lozano, Osimhen, Kvarachelija.
Eintracht: Trapp, Hasebe, N’Dicka, Tuta, Knauff, Rode, Sow, Max, Götze, Kamada, Borre.
Judge: Anthony Taylor (England)
The results of the first matches are in bold. The draw for the quarter-final pairs will take place on Friday at 12:00 in Nyon.
Source: Rtvslo
