City gear up to reap rewards of investments Formidable Juve defence face stern Tottenham test
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Confident Pep Guardiola & Co start their quadruple quest with a last16 clash against Basel
LONDON: The club record £57 million capture of French centreback Aymeric Laporte took Manchester City’s spending on defence in the past year beyond the budgets of many nations.
But the Frenchman could be the final piece of a more than £200 million defensive overhaul to provide the foundations in City’s quest for a historic quadruple.
Pep Guardiola’s men kick off a run of four matches in four different competitions on Tuesday with a return to Champions League action at Basel in the first leg of their last 16 tie.
An FA Cup 5th round tie at Wigan follows before Arsenal await in the League Cup final and then another meeting with the Gunners in the Premier League — where City boast a 16-point lead at the top of the table.
However, it is for the Champions League stage that Guardiola was lured by City’s Abu-dhabi owners and given enormous resources with which to mould an all-conquering squad.
City now boast four of the top six in that category with Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker and John Stones also costing a combined £150 million over the past 18 months. Goalkeeper Ederson’s performances have justified his £35 million purchase from Benfica in the summer.
It is therefore little surprise that Guardiola’s complaints that he “had no players” with which to fill his bench in a recent 1-1 draw at Burnley were met with little sympathy. However, it does raise questions over whether another centre-back was what needed from a January window in which they missed out on more forward thinking targets in Alexis Sanchez and Riyad Mahrez.
Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus will miss both legs against Basel due to long term ankle and knee injuries respectively, whilst David Silva’s role in 2018 has been limited due to the premature birth of his son and injury.
“We have had a lot of injuries — Gabriel Jesus, David Silva, Benjamin Mendy — but hopefully we can fight for every game in all competitions,” said Guardiola. “We can try and do absolutely everything.”
(in pic) from the moment he announced he will quit Barcelona. Their wish was finally fulfilled last season and many feel the Spaniard has built a squad that’s capable of matching the best in the competition.
(below) effort after he netted four goals against Leicester but too often it has been seen that the manager is quite reluctant to field the Argentine in big games.
and Gabriel Jesus set to miss both the legs against Basel, he has no option but to field Aguero but it remains to be seen whether he will still start when Sane and Jesus return and the tournament enters the deep end. Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini — did deliver the league title, they fell way short in Europe. With the owners expecting Pep to deliver what his predecessors failed to, the pressure will be on him to get his act right.
at City’s previous ventures in the Champions League showed that they struggled defensively to match European big guns. Pep, too, found out last season that his defence needed a major shake up after they leaked in six goals against Monaco.
transfer windows, Man City have pumped in around £160m to spruce up the defence into one which Pep feels will help them stand the test of time. 2016-17 2015-16 2014-15 2013-14 2011-12 2010-11 2009-10 2008-09 Round of 16 (Man City) Semifinal (Bayern) Semifinal (Bayern) Semifinal (Bayern) Semifinal (Barcelona) Winners (Barcelona) Semifinal (Barcelona) Winners (Barcelona)
Kevin De Bruyne will be a serious Ballon d'or contender if he wins major titles with the Premier League club, according to his manager Pep Guardiola.
been vital to City's dominance this campaign with the 26-year-old notching a league-high 14 assists including three in
Saturday's 5-1 rout of Leicester City.
scored 11 goals and provided 18 assists across all competitions for City this season, helping them establish a 16-point lead atop the league table and will have to play a crucial role in their
Champions
League quest. MILAN: This is one defence even Harry Kane might struggle to breach.
The world’s leading scorer in 2017 comes up against one of Europe’s tightest back lines when Tottenham take on Juventus on Tuesday.
Only one goal has been conceded in the last 16 matches by the Italian champions. Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is hoping such a formidable record doesn’t spook his players heading into the first leg of the Champions League match in Turin.
“It’s better that I don’t tell them. That will be my psychology,” Pochettino quipped. “It will be a tough battle.”
There were questions over how the Juventus defence would cope following Leonardo Bonucci’s shock departure to AC Milan. For six years, he linked up with Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini and won six league titles. However, after an inconsistent start to the campaign, which saw Juventus concede 14 times in 13 league matches, the back line has settled down.
Medhi Benatia has stepped up to fill the void left by Bonucci and the Morocco international has formed a solid partnership with Chiellini, after both missed several matches through injury. “After the start of the season, when we had games ending 3-2 or even 6-2, like against Udinese, we went back to normal,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “You can control games simply by defending well and not affording your opponents any chances.”
The turning point
was their last Champions League home match — A 0-0 draw with Barcelona in November. After losing 3-0 at Barcelona earlier in the group stage, the return fixture was only the second time Juventus had not conceded in any competition since the end of September. It was the start of the impressive defensive run.
There was a caveat. Barcelona rested Lionel Messi for nearly an hour that night in Turin. There is little chance of Tottenham starting Kane on the bench on Tuesday. The 24-year-old England forward has scored 36 goals in 37 games for club and country this season and has netted at least one goal in six of his last seven matches. But Juventus is no slouch going forward either, having scored a Serie A-leading 61 goals this season while tussling with Napoli for the title.
The Bianconeri will almost certainly be without Paulo Dybala for Tuesday’s first leg. The forward hasn’t played since limping off at Cagliari on Jan 6 and is training apart from the rest of the team while recovering from a muscular injury.
However, Gonzalo Higuain is in fine form coming into the match, with six goals in four matches.