Pep Guardiola, the current manager of Manchester City, left his position as Bayern Munich’s head coach for England about seven years ago. Since then, he has nearly won every trophy available, with the exception of the UEFA Champions League. (UCL). With an eight-game winning streak in all competitions prior to this opening leg of the quarterfinal, the Cityzens should be confident as they are the favorites to capture the illustrious trophy this season.
City will look to gain an advantage in this match by extending their impressive 24-game unbeaten run in home European games after winning their UCL group for a sixth consecutive season under Guardiola. (W22, D2). In fact, City has a chance to break the record for the longest UCL home unbeaten streak by an English team with one more win or draw.
Thomas Tuchel, the former Chelsea manager who famously defeated City in the 2021 UCL final, is the one who wants to put an end to that streak. When Bayern Munich was eliminated by Freiburg in the DFB Pokal, Tuchel’s aspirations to “win all the trophies” were immediately dashed. However, a 1-0 league victory against the same opponents at the weekend has kept them on track for a record-extending 11th consecutive Bundesliga title.
Bayern is in danger of missing out on the semi-final stage for the third time in a row since the 2008–09 season after been ousted at this level of the UCL in each of the previous two seasons. Though optimism should be raised by the fact that Bayern have won five of their previous seven away games against English opponents (W3, D2, L2), as well as the fact that they advanced from 63% of their UCL quarterfinal matches. (W20, L12).
The show may be run by two players who switched from the Bundesliga to the Premier League (and vice versa)! Erling Haaland of City scored five goals in his seven losses to Bayern as a player for Dortmund, and he also scored five goals in City’s most recent UCL match against Leipzig. Regarding Bayern, Sadio Mané scored ten goals in 19 matches against City while playing for Southampton and Liverpool (W7, D5, L7), including four in his past three head-to-heads.
TEAM NEWS
For this match, Guardiola will have access to an almost totally healthy Man City team; Phil Foden will be the lone holdout as he recovers from having his appendix removed.
The City boss hasn’t changed his starting lineup much lately, and it might look a lot like the team that defeated Southampton.
Riyad Mahrez might be replaced by Bernardo Silva after the Portuguese midfielder played both legs of the previous round’s match against Leipzig for a total of 90 minutes.
Aymeric Laporte shouldn’t play again in the back three, and John Stones should start in place of Kalvin Phillips because of his superior midfield performance.
Because Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting is expected to miss out due to a knee injury, Tuchel will not be able to send his Bayern team to Manchester with a healthy natural center striker.
For the victory over Freiburg, Serge Gnabry was utilized in a center position, but Thomas Muller has also filled similar role in the past.
Jamal Musiala might go forward with Muller being used up top if Leon Goretzka returns to the lineup after being rested against Freiburg.
Due to his troubles, Kingsley Coman, who scored the decisive winning goal in the first leg of their round of 16 matchup away in Paris, may take Sadio Mane’s spot on the left side.
Manchester City’s possible starting lineup
Ederson, Akanji, Ruben Dias, Ake, Stones, Rodri, Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Grealish, and Haaland.
Possible starting lineup for Bayern Munich
Muller, Goretzka, Kimmich, Sane, Musiala, Pavard, De Ligt, Sommer, Coman, Davies and Upamecano.
We predict: Manchester City 2-2 Bayern Munich
Man City’s recent performance indicates that they can currently defeat any opponent put in front of them, but they might not have everything their way in this situation.
This is a true heavyweight clash because Bayern has won all eight of their Champions League games this season and is unbeaten in their four trips to England, winning three of them.