Manchester City welcome Bayern Munich to the Etihad Stadium for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal clash. City breezed past RB Leipzig 8-1 on aggregate in the previous round, with Erling Haaland scoring 5 goals in a 7-0 demolition of the German side.
Now they face another German team in Bayern Munich, who are currently flying high at the top of the Bundesliga and looking for European success. Both teams are largely regarded as strong contenders for this year’s competition, and a semi-final match against 2022 winners Real Madrid or 2021 winners Chelsea awaits the winner of this tantalising tie.
The clash makes for a managerial re-run of the 2021 Champions League final, as Thomas Tuchel returns to England for the first time since being sacked by Chelsea last September. The German outfoxed Pep Guardiola in the 2021 showpiece, leading to a second Champions League title for Chelsea.
Now he’ll be hoping to repeat that success in this year’s competition, having recently replaced Julian Nagelsmann as Bayern Munich’s manager. For Manchester City though, this presents itself as another opportunity to get their hands on a trophy that has so far eluded them, and Pep Guardiola may just see this year as the best opportunity they’ve had to win the competition since he arrived at the club, with star man Erling Haaland in imperious form in front of goal.
Team News
Pep Guardiola is able to call on an almost fully fit City squad for this clash, with Phil Foden the only absentee from the squad due to his recovery from an appendix removal.
As for Bayern, they travel to Manchester without a recognised centre-forward as Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting is ruled out with a knee injury. That probably means either Serge Gnabry or Thomas Muller are likely to start up front for the visitors. Leon Goretzka is fully expected to start after being rested on Saturday for their game against SC Freiburg.
Manager Quotes
Pep Guardiola
“[In] my point of view, Bayern is not a team built to just think it is going to happen second leg, it’s built to come here to win.
“From my experience when I was there, I had the feeling it doesn’t matter where you play, you have to be Bayern Munich and you have to try to win.
“If they defend maybe more than usual it’s because we’re doing well. But if we are not doing well we are going to defend more than usual.
“Not because I think the approach of Bayern Munich to sit back, defend 90 mins and make two or three transitions, and after we see what happens at the Allianz Arena. I don’t think so but at the same time I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Thomas Tuchel
“I don’t think I can learn much from other games I’ve played against Pep.
“It’s unique what Pep does. We’ll try to find solutions but we’ll need a complete performance to create problems for City.
“It is a major task in front of us. I was just outside [at Etihad Stadium] and that is the current gold standard for us.
“We want to live up to that but the team is entitled to be confident after our results and performances in the Champions League so far and we have to try to continue like that.
“Maybe we play in a role of slight underdog, which is not a problem. We’ll try to make the most of it. We need to be confident and on top of our game.”
Predicted Lineups
Manchester City: Ederson; Stones, Akanji, Dias, Ake; Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne; Mahrez, Haaland, Grealish
Bayern Munich: Sommer; Pavard, De Ligt, Upamecano, Davies; Goretzka, Kimmich; Sane, Musiala, Coman; Muller
Where can I watch?
Kick-off for this tie at the Etihad Stadium is at 8pm on Tuesday 11th April. It will be broadcast live on BT Sport 1 in the UK.
