Man City have received a great boost in their Premier League title race after Arsenal dropped points on Sunday but this week, Pep Guardiola’s undivided attention will be on the Champions League.
Manchester City beat RB Leipzig in the previous round and now, in the quarter-finals they face the mighty Bayern Munich. The UCL is one trophy that has eluded Guardiola and now his former side stands in the way of that dream.
The first leg will be played at the Etihad Stadium this week and on paper, both these teams are very evenly matched. Bayern has a new manager in the form of Thomas Tuchel so Man City will have to pull up their socks because the German side are currently one of the most in-form teams in Europe. They have just regained the top spot in the Bundesliga and Tuchel is one of the best tactical coaches around right now.
Thankfully, Man City have also been in great form this season as they are undefeated in their last 12 matches plus they haven’t lost at home in the same number of games.
It will be very hard to predict the outcome of this set of fixtures but whoever wins the first leg will probably have the upper hand.
Manchester City’s team news and injuries:
The major boost for Pep Guardiola came this weekend as Erling Haaland recovered from his groin injury and scored a brace against Southampton. The forward has already netted 30 league goals this season and he will have a major say in midweek as well.
Phil Foden is the only player who is going to miss out because of his appendix surgery and the England international will be absent for two to three weeks.
The Man City boss has been using a three-man defensive line and he will stick to this same formation against Bayern Munich as well. This system will mean Kyle Walker is going to miss out once again because Guardiola has made it clear that the full-back cannot adapt to this formation.
The manager had recently admitted, (h/t The Guardian): “No, he cannot do it[play in a back-three]. He will always have pace; Kyle at 60 years old will be the fastest player in this room.
“To play inside you have to have educated movements – he doesn’t have every one of the characteristics. He has played as a full-back coming inside in the past with four at the back. He has done really well but this shape of three at the back and two in the middle, he cannot do it.”
Man City have Kalvin Phillips in their squad but still, Guardiola has been using John Stones in defensive midfield alongside Rodri. Phillips has clearly failed to impress his new boss and there’s very little chance that he will get to play this season, especially in the important matches.
Riyad Mahrez had an underwhelming game against the Saints so he could move to the bench which will allow Bernardo Silva to come into the starting line up.
Apart from this one change, we don’t think Guardiola is going to make any other rotations to the first XI which played at the weekend. The Spanish manager is famous for taking weird decisions but he should keep it simple this week.
Man City predicted line up vs Bayern Munich:
Predicted Starting Line up(3-2-4-1): Ederson; Akanji, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake; Rodri, Stones; Gundogan, Grealish, Silva/Mahrez, De Bruyne, Gundogan; Haaland.
