Former Manchester United midfielder has claimed that Manchester City have no hopes of getting far in the UEFA Champions League in spite of making it to the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. The Sky Blues advanced at the expense of Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv with a 3-1 aggregate win after the second leg ended in a drab 0-0 draw at the Etihad on Tuesday night.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side have failed to make their mark in the Premier League this season, falling down to fourth spot in the table after initially topping the table in the first half of the season. Although they managed to win the Capital One Cup in a penalty shootout with Liverpool, they have been far from their best having not won a single game against the other top six sides.
The second leg itself was short on quality on the pitch with City struggling to score past a Dynamo Kyiv side who were chasing the game. Keane, who works on ITV as a football pundit, was very direct and honest with his assessment of Pellegrini’s side.
I wouldn’t watch City play in my garden: Keane
“In the last week, you watch their performances against Liverpool, Norwich [City] and [Dynamo] Kyiv and watching those games has been torture,” Keane explained.
Manchester City had failed to score a single goal in the three games mentioned by Keane – three of their last four fixtures – having scored only against bottom-placed Aston Villa earlier this month.
Although City had won the first leg 3-1 in a tense affair with goals from the trio of Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Yaya Toure, a lot more was expected in the second leg with fans groaning whenever their side missed out on several opportunities to open the scoring. To make matters worse, they also lost centre-backs Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi to injury ahead of the Manchester derby this weekend.
“Against Kyiv, you can say the hard work was done in the first leg, but there is still responsibility on the players to go and perform and when Man City are in that mood, I wouldn't go and watch them play in my back garden.”
“Poor attitude, you should still have a desire to go and win a game of football against Kyiv.
Keane also gave a scathing verdict on whether they could go on and win the tournament now that they had moved to the quarter-finals.
“The idea that City can go and win the tournament, they are all in cuckoo land.”
City are still missing the services of Kevin De Bruyne who injured his knee towards the end of January. The Belgian midfielder was instrumental at the start of the season and had 5 goals and 9 assists before he was sidelined.
