Manchester City and the Champions League
14 Mar
This is a guest post from Andrew Moody.
Tomorrow night sees the return leg of Manchester City tie with Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League. After a dominant 3-1 victory away from home in Ukraine, Manuel Pellegrini will now be confident of overseeing progression to the quarter-finals for the first time in City’s history.
The Blues have struggled in this competition in recent years, falling at the group stage on numerous occasions before finally advancing to the knockout rounds under Pellegrini. There, however, they have been drawn against Barcelona in the last two seasons and have suffered convincing defeats.
This time around, having topped the group despite never truly convincing, they received a favourable match up against Dynamo Kyiv and were expected to progress. Their performance in Ukraine has seen them establish a very strong position ahead of the second leg, and if you fancy a flutter on the game at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night, then keep up to date with the football betting news at BetHut.com.
Pellegrini will certainly hope his players perform better than they did at the weekend, when they were held to a goalless draw on the road at Norwich. City controlled possession for large chunks of the match, but were unable to create openings and never really tested John Ruddy in the home side’s goal. The likes of David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Jesus Navas need to increase their output and fire the Blues to glory.
That result at Carrow Road leaves City lagging behind leaders Leicester in the race for the Premier League title and few would fancy the club’s chances of lifting silverware come May. Performances throughout the season in the league have been underwhelming and it is now a remarkable five months since Pellegrini’s players strung together consecutive domestic wins. For a squad with such ability, that is a woeful record.
Still, the Champions League has offered some respite this season and the club now hope to cast aside Dynamo Kyiv tomorrow and move forward in the competition.
Absolutely outrageous, until recently Pellegrini was bitching about our shitty results are related to injury. And for one game that he can afford rotation to CB, he starts with Kompany and Otamandi who have been playing past few games and keeps Mangala on bench. He is an old, stubborn, one-track minded fool.
Watching City was so joyful and recent games it has been nothing short of painful. I can not wait till this season is over…
totally agree.but these players are also to blame.roll on the clear out……if anyone takes the wasters.