2022-23 UEFA Champions League knockout stage team preview: Manchester City
IN BRIEF
Manager: Pep Guardiola
Group stage performance: 1st (WWWDDW - vs Borussia Dortmund, Copenhagen, Sevilla)
UEFA Champions Leagues/European Cups: 0
Last season’s performance: Semi-finals
SO FAR…
Manchester City have had a very bizarre season and that was represented in the group stages of this season’s UEFA Champions League, too.
Pep Guardiola’s Cityzens went through the campaign unbeaten but were held to a goalless draw in Denmark against Copenhagen, went behind at home to Borussia Dortmund in their second match, failed to score in Dortmund in the reverse fixture and were forced to come from behind again against Sevilla.
Basically, Manchester City showed the fallibility that they have shown in the Premier League but on a bit of a smaller scale and thanks to the incompetence or lack of qualify of their opposition, they weren’t majorly punished for their issues, both in attack and in defence.
WHAT ARE MANCHESTER CITY’S CHANCES IN THE KNOCKOUT STAGES?
Pep Guardiola’s side have always had some sort of ‘glass chin’ in terms of balls over the top hurting their high defensive line. City have a plethora of high quality centre-backs, most notably this season John Stones, but both sides of their game have been faulty throughout the campaign across all competitions – despite having the goal scoring machine that is Erling Braut Haaland.
City have scored pretty much the same amount of goals as last season but rather than shared around by five or six players, they have a focal point that has scored over half of them. The idea that they are a worse team with Haaland seems ludicrous on the face of it but they factually are worse than they were last season; whether it is Haaland’s fault or not is a different debate.
What has changed because of the Norwegian striker is the way City have to play. Perpetual movement, of the ball and without the ball, is a fundament principle of Guardiola’s play. It allows a freedom and fluency that is difficult to defend, combined with supreme technical ability to match the intuitive play. Having one man not know or have to do that role is one man less than the almost perfect City teams of the recent past.
However, it may help them in the UEFA Champions League. Winning the big moments is crucial. City went out to a second-leg second-half stoppage-time comeback from eventual champions Real Madrid last season but moments prior to that drama, they had two chances via Jack Grealish and Phil Foden that, anecdotally at least, would have been polished off by their new number nine.
ODDS TO WIN THE 2022-23 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: 2/1
Odds used are the best at Oddschecker at the time of writing
