KOMPANY: WE’RE READY TO BREAK UP EURO ELITE
PEP GUARDIOLA may choose to be guarded when it comes to the Champions League, but the man sitting to his right at St-Jakob Park last night was altogether more bullish about Manchester City’s prospects in Europe. Vincent Kompany joined City too late in the summer of 2008 to play in the opening UEFA Cup games against EB Streymur of the Faroe Islands and FC Midtjylland. But he remembers that campaign well, and knows how far his club have come in almost a decade. So when it was put to Kompany that City can now count themselves among the heavyweights of European football, there was no holding back. ‘Things have changed,’ said the City skipper, who hopes to make his first appearance in the Champions League against Basle tonight since a semi-final defeat by Real Madrid in May 2016. ‘If there is a year, a moment, when the club is ready to feel at home, then it’s now. I’m not going to say it’s a matter of time — some clubs never win it — but if every year we can go with this kind of confidence, then if not this year or next year, eventually we’ll get there. ‘I’m sure of it. In previous years we’ve felt how difficult it is. We’ve been caught out on occasions when we shouldn’t have, and there has been a lack of experience for sure. ‘We are trying to break into a wellestablished order — Barcelona, Bayern, Real Madrid. Any team who has tried it over the last 10 years has failed. First it’s Basle, then getting to the stage where we can measure ourselves against these teams and feel like we can beat them.’ City are favourites to beat a Basle side who shocked Manchester United with an 89th-minute winner here in a group game in November but have never progressed beyond the last 16 of this competition. Still, Guardiola struck a cautious tone once again as the twotime Champions League winning coach returned to Europe’s biggest stage. ‘I don’t know if we are ready,’ he said. ‘I’ve a lot of confidence, but this competition is special. Our target is to do better than last season — the quarters. After that we’ll see.’ Guardiola confirmed that Leroy Sane is in his
plans just a fortnight after suffering an ankle injury that was expected to rule him out for up to seven weeks. It is a remarkable recovery from the Germany winger, who has only had one training session with his team-mates. ‘I’m surprised,’ admitted the City boss. ‘He worked a lot. He’s young but I couldn’t expect him to be so professional.’ For Basle, victory over a City side lying 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League would eclipse the win over United. ‘We need a perfect night,’ said coach Raphael Wicky. ‘We need to believe and have the mentality to do it. Manchester City have no weaknesses, they show that in all the competitions they’re in.’