CITY CAN LIFT GLOOM AROUND ENGLAND ’ S GIANTS
PARIS – Manchester City are well set to make Champions League history and alleviate the misery engulfing English football’s heavyweights as they take on Dynamo Kiev tonight.
City have never yet made it beyond the last 16 in Europe’s premier club competition but hold a 3-1 lead from the first leg in the Ukraine. Although Manuel Pellegrini’s team have already secured the English League Cup this season, beating Liverpool on penalties to do so, it has been a largely inglorious year for England’s top clubs.
Barring a near-miracle at Camp Nou, Barcelona will complete victory over an Arsenal side they beat 2-0 in London in the first leg.
With Chelsea crashing out to French champions Paris Saint-Germain last week and Manchester United crumbling in the group stages, City will almost certainly be England’s only remaining participants in the Champions League when the draw for the quarterfinals is made, providing they see off Kiev.
Yet even victory at Eastlands won ’ t mask what has been a thoroughly depressing season for English giants as Leicester City continue to dominate the Premier League table while United, Chelsea and Liverpool languish outside even the European qualification places.
Even in the Europa League, England look set to be left with one representative in the quarterfinals.
And so success for City would have extra significance in arresting the English Premier League slide.
Not that Pellegrini believes the tie with Dynamo is over.
“If we can get to the quarterfinal of the Champions League for the first time, of course that will be another important achievement,” said the Chilean, who will leave City at the end of the season.
“But one of the worst things we can do is to think that we have already qualified.” –