Manchester City and Bayern Munich open today at the Etihad the most exciting tie of the quarter-finals of the Champions League, a priori the two biggest favorites for the title, without forgetting Real Madrid, the current champion. For Pep Guardiola, it will be particularly emotional because not only is he once again pursuing his dream of lifting his hat for the first time with City (he won two with FC Barcelona), but he is crossing paths with a team he led in the Bundesliga before landing in Manchester.
City go into the Premier League behind Arsenal, but Bayern arrive at the meeting after a rather more turbulent few weeks that ended up costing their coach, Julian Nagelsmann, his job. It has lost and regained the leadership of its league and suffered the setback of elimination from the Cup against Freiburg. The bench is now in the hands of Thomas Tuchel, who won the Champions League with Chelsea two seasons ago... precisely against Guardiola's City.
Tuchel has had little time to prepare for the tie, but he counts on Bayern's solvency in the competition, where they have eliminated PSG, another of the big favourites, in the round of 16, and without too many problems. The coach, with a lot of personality, got off to a good start at Bayern, beating his former team, Borussia Dortmund, and regaining the lead in the Bundesliga.
Guardiola had to face yesterday the question of every year, if this is the one that can finally lift the Champions League with the skyblues "They ask me the question every season and I understand it. It's something we try to do every year, but we play against great teams and they all want to win it. My dream is to win all the titles, but just because you try doesn't mean you'll get it", explained the Catalan in a press conference. And he gave an example: "Michael Jordan won six NBA rings, but how many seasons did he play? 16”, he reasoned.
The tie also has, if nothing else, the incentive of seeing the Norwegian Erling Håland against his true black beast. Håland, who has already scored 44 goals this season, has never beaten Bayern in an official game, with a record of seven matches in two seasons against the Bavarians and seven defeats. However, in these games the Norwegian striker scored five goals and made one assist. And he didn't play the full 90 minutes of each game; in five he was replaced.
"It is very important for us, I will not deny it. He came to help us in the Champions League, yes, but also in the FA Cup and the Premier League. It is important to have a player who can score goals from nothing, but in the past we also scored a lot and got knocked out. Maybe the problem is that we weren't solid enough in defense", he pointed out.
For today, not many changes are expected in Guardiola's line-up, which has Phil Foden out due to appendicitis. The only doubt in principle would be between Riyad Mahrez or Bernardo Silva. In defense, the formation of three will return, with Nathan Aké, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji, seconded by John Stones, in a midfield role when City go on the attack.
At Bayern Tuchel brings back Upamecano to form at the back with Mathys de Light, so Benjamin Pavard would return to the right-back to the detriment of João Cancelo. If he plays on the left, Alphonso Davies would be left out. Up front, Bayern have a doubt over Choupo Moting, who will go down against Freiburg in the league at the weekend with a knee problem. It is in Europe where the Bavarian club has shown the best version this campaign.
There is not a single ticket left at the Etihad. Anything short of settling the tie in Munich will be a surprise.
