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Manchester City’s Champions League campaign hangs by a thread. They have a small chance of qualifying for the knockout stages. If they fail to do so, they will fail to qualify from the group for the third time in four attempts.
“Let’s be honest, with the salary of every player and the level of those players, 90% of the team is world class. We still have a chance and we need to take it or next year it’s going to be new players, it’s going to be new everything,” Samir Nasri recently remarked these words in an interview. It perfectly explains the current predicament of a team which has inexplicably under-performed in the Champions League.
Often shifting the blame on inexperience of playing in the competition and sometimes on the tough draw being handed over, those reasons does not seem legitimate anymore. City is now in its fourth consecutive year of the UEFA Champions League. Their team consists of players all of whom represent their national team. With a team having the likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, Joe Hart among others, the excuse of inexperience seems ludicrous to say the least.
City beat Munich at home to give themselves a chance
Manchester City’s campaign in this year’s Champions League seemed over after just four matches, but they were provided a lifeline not once, but twice. Roma needed just a win against CSKA Moscow which they almost achieved, until a last minute freak goal saved Moscow from another defeat.
City, on the other hand, had to beat Bayern to keep their hopes alive of qualifying for the next stage. However, they performed badly and were on the verge of an ignominous exit when Aguero stepped in & rescued them out of nowhere with two quick goals at the end.
Will City finally come good in the Champions League?
The permutation is simple; City now has to beat Roma and pray that CSKA loses to Bayern. But they have to do it without the services of in-form striker Aguero(injured knee), mercurial midfielder Yaya(suspended), captain Kompany, creative genius Silva and Montenegrin Jovetic all doubtful to start. Dzeko could start, but he is still not a 100% fit and might play a bit-part role. In the absence of their star striker Aguero, it would be a tall order for City to eke out a victory gauging their over-dependence on the Argentinian this season.
Nevertheless, City has the depth in their squad in every position. Despite all their exploits in the Premier League, City hasn’t fired in the European competitions yet. It’s high time they start doing that especially after having spent four consecutive seasons in the Champions League. After spending nearly £1,000,000,000 in assembling the team, the Arab owners of Manchester City would like to get some rewards to justify the massive outlay.
This could be only possible when the team start stamping their authority in the Champions league. With all the resources and talent at their disposal, this team needs to either perform or perish. There is no scope for excuses anymore else, like Nasri said, next season it may be new everything.
