City look to maintain CL push, Milan face Chelsea challenge
City have an impeccable atack with the trio of Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland leading the charge
Manchester City, who routed rival Manchester United 6-3 on Sunday, is the only English team in a strong position ater wins over Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund already in the Champions League.
Next comes back-to-back games against FC Copenhagen, with City having a good chance of advancing from Group G with two matches to spare. Their first game is on Wednesday.
City have an impeccable atack with the trio of Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Erling Haaland leading the charge.
All three of them have been in stellar form and pushing the City charge for teh fith title in ten years. They onus of helping City realizing their Champions League dream will be carried on the shoulders of the trio.
City are chasing an elusive Champions title under Pep Guardiola . They have come agonizingly close twice to lit the trophy in the last three seasons but were denied in the semi-finals.
De Bruyne has tipped Phil Foden to reach new heights once the Manchester City star is allowed to take a leading role later in his career.
Foden hit a hat-trick in City’s 6-3 rout of arch rivals Manchester United. The England forward’s goal-scoring feats at the Etihad Stadium were only part of an outstanding all-round display that underlined his emergence as one of City’s key players.
With Erling Haaland also scoring a treble in the Manchester derby to maintain his blistering form, City’s firepower looks even more formidable than last season.
Meanwhile, AC Milan prepared to kick-off their thrilling 3-1 win at Empoli on Saturday, a fan invaded the pitch in search of Rafael Leao, a superstar in the making who will lead the Rossoneri’s charge at Chelsea on Wednesday.
The supporter wanted a selfie with the Portugal winger, who was already a favourite ater the way he played in Milan’s Serie A title triumph but is now being spoken of in the sort of tones as for the past icons who made them seven-time European champions.
Ater hiting double figures for both goals and assists last season the 23-year-old had started this campaign in even more spectacular form, scoring four times and seting up six more in all competitions. Red-hot Leao will be the key man at Stamford Bridge as Milan atempt to hold top spot in Champions League Group E, which they lead by one point from Dinamo Zagreb, and increase their hopes of making the knockout stages for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
A good performance will surely increase the Blues’ interest in Leao ater they made an informal bid to Milan in the close season.
Benfica and PSG will fight for the outright Group H lead on Wednesday as they both have six points while Juventus and Maccabi Haifa have none.
PSG edged Nice 2-1 on Saturday with goals from Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe to retain its two-point lead over Marseille in the French league.
Center back Presnel Kimpembe and midfielder Marco Verrati were both suspended against Nice and were still injured anyway.
Messi was arguably the best player against Nice while Neymar’s form has recently dipped. Nice prevented PSG from creating chances for most of the first half by pressing high up the field.
Benfica will look to bully PSG in the middle as the two central midfielders can sometimes be isolated.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal believes his team fully deserve their glittering Champions League record and dismissed Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez’s mention of unfairness.
Los blanc os, the reigning champions and record 14-time European Cup winners, have lited the trophy five times in the last nine years.
Right-back Carvajal established himself in the team during the 2013-14 season, when Madrid ended an 11-season drought in the tournament to win La Decima, their 10th European Cup.
Xavi said at a press conference on Monday that the best team does not always win the Champions League and La Liga was a “fairer” competition.
“I think that when you’ve won five of the last nine Champions Leagues, you can’t put that down to luck,” Carvajal told a press conference on Tuesday, ahead of his team’s clash with Shakhtar Donetsk.
“Football is results, the team that scores more goals and concedes less wins. In the last few years, we’ve been the best. It’s strange to talk about whether it’s fair or not.