Man City take on PSG in the Champions League semi-final, the first leg of which is to be played on Wednesday. And there’s a very simple job that Man City need to pull off to get into the finals, stop Neymar and Mbappe from dominating.
Guardiola has already admitted that both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe can single-handedly change the course of a match and according to Chris Sutton, the Man City boss will have to keep a few key things in mind if he wishes to stop these two players from coming up with their A games.
Sutton wrote for The Daily Mail: “In both quarter-final legs against Bayern Munich, PSG sat in a compact shape when out of possession — but left Mbappe in a very advanced position. Mauricio Pochettino wasn’t about to tie his fastest athlete down to defensive duties. He’s too valuable to the counter attack.
“Neymar, playing at No 10, could spring forward, too. The best way for City to avoid counters is to not lose the ball — so Pep Guardiola is bound to stand by his false nine system.
“After beating Dortmund, the City boss explained his XI was based on ‘players that have the ability to not lose the ball’. They didn’t want to give Erling Haaland any chances on the break — and they won’t want to see the blurred backsides of Mbappe and Neymar either.
“City also have to be careful down the flanks. PSG didn’t mind giving Bayern space on the wings, and they may afford City that luxury as well.
“If Guardiola’s full backs fly forward down those empty flanks, then that leaves a lot of room for Mbappe to run into. Kyle Walker is fast, but even he would struggle to catch the Frenchman. That’s something for City’s full backs to be aware of if they push up the pitch. Walker is in for a busy evening in particular. I’m sure City’s analysts will have warned him how most of Mbappe’s goals come from his side of the pitch.
“Neymar, meanwhile, plays slightly deeper and I’m sure Guardiola will have told Rodri not to let him out of his sight.”
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Neymar and Mbappe are easily two of the most influential attackers in world football right now and while the Brazilian has played only 14 Ligue 1 games this season for PSG, Mbappe, on the other hand, has scored 25 goals in 29 league matches so far.
The French international is likely to play through the middle on Wednesday and it will be interesting to see if Stones and Ruben Dias can keep him at bay or not. The Man City centre-back pairing has been in peak form this season but at times, they will need to double up just to stop the likes of Mbappe or Neymar from getting behind them.
Apart from these two players, Angel Di Maria also remains a major threat from the right-hand side of the pitch and either Zinchenko or Cancelo will have the task of keeping the Argentine at bay.
