City rely on hero Haaland
Tonight’s highly anticipated Champions League quarter-final first leg clash between Manchester City and Bayern Munich headline TAB’s Soccer 10 pool and with Erling Haaland back to full health, the home team will be looking to build up a solid advantage to take to Germany in the return leg.
By Mark Gleeson
Chelsea and Real Madrid both look to have their focus firmly on the Champions League rather than their respective leagues where their chances of title success are non-existent.
Both teams lost to weaker opposition on the weekend, with the Blues particularly poor in going down to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
However, the current Champions League title holders would be foolish to think that Chelsea will not up their game at the Bernabéu tomorrow because history suggests they could rise to the occasion in the first leg of the quarter-final tie.
Under Graham Potter, even with poor form in the league, the players regularly lifted levels on the European stage. Of Potter’s 31 matches in charge, Chelsea won seven of 22 Premier League games, but five of seven Champions League games.
Chelsea, with Frank Lampard now back at the helm, are one of three remaining English sides in the last eight, along with three Italian teams.
Two of the Italian teams play each other tomorrow as AC Milan and Napoli meet just 10 days after a shock 3-0 win for Milan in Naples in the league. That was one of the few blemishes on Napoli’s season where they have been one of the most exciting teams to watch and superb in both European club competition as well as domestically. They are 22 points ahead of Milan in Serie A and should have enough firepower to see them though.
Inter Milan play tonight away against Benfica with both clubs feeling they have a glorious chance to get through to the semi-finals. Benfica are top of the Portuguese league although their lead was cut to five points when they lost at home to second-placed Porto on Friday.
Manchester City and Bayern Munich clash in tonight’s other meeting and are probably the two most impressive sides in Europe at the moment. Pep Guardiola will be worried about his former club – where he also failed to win the Champions League – knocking City out. Thomas Tuchel, who steered Chelsea to the trophy two years ago, has just arrived to boost Bayern’s fortunes, bringing his reputation as a tactical giant.
Bayern have a two-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.
Manchester City beat Southampton 4-1 at the weekend to stay in touch with Arsenal in the Premier League title race - their eighth win in a row, as City’s annual late-season winning streak is in full flow.
Another four goals at the weekend means they have found the net 31 times during this eight-game winning run.
With Erling Haaland up front and back to full health, another two goals at St. Mary’s took the Norwegian’s tally to 30 Premier League goals for the season.
The side’s top scorer has a further 10 in six Champions League outings this season, but Haaland has never enjoyed much success against Bayern, losing all seven encounters during his time with Borussia Dortmund.