Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 275. (Read 141888 times)

this opportunity comes when Man City is no longer like last season, it was very clear when several players had a decline in productivity as I said in the EPL thread and problems like this put a lot of pressure on Guardiola who had to face Real Madrid with more experience in the UCL.
It's not surprising that if you compare the experience, Real Madrid is much more experienced, having won the most titles in the UCL, but Madrid still has to be careful, even though Haaland has experienced a slight decline in performance, but there are several other players who must be wary of.
IMO, both teams will be equally wary of their respective mainstay players, such as Man City will focus more on seeing the movements of Vinic and Bellingham but Madrid will definitely focus more on the movements of Haaland and De Bruyne.
even if the two teams will not meet in the final round, this match will be a very interesting match.

The UCL heavyweights are about meeting in less than a week and now we’ve got to analyze best who’ll be able to get maximum victories in this match. Manchester City have sincerely dropped on performance level as they’ve failed some rigorous tests in the league and most recent being the draw against Arsenal. You can see how the team struggled to try and get a goal past Arsenal but it was all to no avail.

 ⁠In the match against Real Madrid, yes we know how better shaped and placed Real Madrid are for this fixture and as such I term them as the favorites. Yes Real Madrid have what it takes this time to be able to defeat this City side. It’s very simple try to mark out Foden and get some players to alway hit dirty on Rodri and I think this City side will be feeble and weak.

 Yes, you can say Arsenal looking better as compared to last season which means Real too will sure look better because City didn’t make much changes and also their recent injury woes on their defense line will be a big and major worry for the players when they come for this fixture. Pep will have to get the right tactics quickly before this match else he’ll sure be eliminated from this competition.

 ⁠Carlo Ancelotti too has a vast of experience in the UCL and I know he wouldn’t want a repetition of last season’s errors and as such I trust him not to try out some crazy tactics but rather get the best tactics to nail this match already. I have high hopes on Real Madrid being able to cruise past this City side and it’s sure going to happen.

Real Madrid failed in all negotiations to buy a real striker, let`s remember that Bellingam is not a real pure striker and therefore does what he can!
If he had a striker like Lautaro or Osimhen, then everything could change for Real Madrid, but they fail all tractative

Manchester city defense is not that strong too, and not only the front liners. This would cause a very big problem for them, because if Foden is macked down, it means that we might no see Manchester city score easily on that match day. Another thing with City is that when they want to score, they all move forward. This will give Real Madrid the opportunity of using counter attack to score them.

Vini, Rodrigo and Bellingham will not miss scoring any counter opportunity that will come. City should be more careful, because to me it seems that Real Madrid players are more strong and experienced than Manchester city in the Champions League. Haaland is fading away.

I think Xabi Alonso should be allowed to choose the kind of players he wants in his squad and shouldn't be pressured into recruiting big players just because he would be playing in the champions league come next season. He has already proven himself as a good coach by doing what he has done this season with the Leverkusen side, so I don't think anyone is doubting his technical abilities. Xabi Alonso has agreed to continue with Bayern Leverkusen next season despite having several clubs like real madrid, Liverpool and other European elite club wanting to employ him come next season, without any oarta of doubt. I think Bayern Leverkusen are gonna do well in both domestic and European completion as long as they have their coach with them next season.

Haaland has experienced a decline in performance and it seems that he can no longer be relied on in the front line and Guardiola has to place the best substitute player to replace Haaland in the front line. Against Arsenal we saw that Haaland was unable to penetrate their defense as well as other strong teams, except for Manchester city against weak teams, usually Haaland easily scores goals, it is not easy for him against a strong team like Arsenal or a team like Madrid in the UCL later in the first leg of the UCL quarter-finals.

Next season I hope Manchester City has an attacking player to replace Haaland because as we know he can no longer be relied on to be in that position because he can no longer be a goal machine for Manchester City and Guardiola must find a new player next season to replace him. In the next season, Haaland was never able to score a goal against a strong team like in the UCL last season, he couldn't even score and was able to penetrate the opponent's defense easily, always failing to score in the quarter-finals and final of the UCL last season.

Mancity's attack is quite inferior to Real Madrid's. Halaand seems quite ungainly and quite gentle when facing big teams, Mancity's recent scoring has depended a lot on Phil Foden. Meanwhile, Real Madrid's attack is more varied with the duo of Brazil and Bellingham. It's quite difficult for Mancity to play a double attack with Real Madrid. I think a defensive counter-attack and wait for an opportunity will be better for Mancity because Real Madrid is not good at defending against the counter-attack. This could be a point for Mancity to exploit when Real is engrossed in attacking.

Saw a video of Josep Pep Guardiola fuming over the games, that they're too occupied. But we all know he is the perfectionists,Yes? So let's see what he's got for us this season.
I can see that he dropped a lot of players on the bench so they'll be fresh when tjrungo on to face Real Madrid in the Champions League Competition come next week.

Not just the both of them, I also saw John Stones who was also reported to be Injured after limping off that game against Belgium during the international duties.

I'm very certain that wasn't no Injury and that he faked it so he could be allowed to report back to his club side. Players these days be lying too much and we know it's clearly lies.

Your remark about Leverkusen's issues is valid. Champions League is a different world, and Xabi encounters challenges. This summer matters. Losing important players would be devastating as big clubs approach. We all know that game. It could ripple, thats the risk. We shouldnt rule them out yet. They must find stability under this uncertainty. It'll be crucial for the Bundesliga and Champions League.

Bayern Munich stumbled this season, but they always recover. Analyze, learn, modify. Leverkusen must plan and outwit them. A vibrant, well-oiled team is more important than large signings. Xabi's test is big, but Im optimistic. The beauty of sports is that underdogs can win.

I think it's not Manchester City that looks bad compared to last season, it's Arsenal who is better compared to last season because Manchester City still has the same performance, it's just that Arsenal wants to do better this season by competing in the Premier League title race with Manchester City and also Liverpool so in my opinion Manchester City is still playing well, losing Gundogan is not a big problem for Manchester City because they still have a complete squad, especially in the attack line. Even though Manchester City played with a complete squad, including Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, it turned out that Mikel Arteta was able to give Arsenal a good strategy when facing them.

So, if you see Arsenal performing better compared to last season, Real Madrid will also do the same thing. They want to perform better compared to last season in the Champions League where Real Madrid was defeated by Manchester City and this will be an event of revenge for Real Madrid to avenge their defeat, we'll see what Carlo Ancelotti will do in providing his strategy when his club again faces a club that is strong in attack, but Real Madrid's attack is also quite good this season so both clubs will be wary of each other.

Real Madrid cannot make it difficult for Manchester City, and I didn’t see any weakness from Manchester City that will make that happen, although I don’t know your reason for saying that. Just understand that in this stage, Manchester City are very strong opponents, and Manchester City will be a very big challenge for Real Madrid in this championship league this season, so let's see if what you are saying will happen because to me, I didn’t see any sign of weakness in Manchester City's performance.


I didn’t see any weakness from Manchester City in the match. The thing is that they find it difficult to penetrate Arsenal's defense. Arsenal played a defensive game. It seems to me that Arsenal were not even looking up to winning, but they should play  a draw because, with the way they were playing, they didn’t allow Manchester City players to get any chance of going home to even try to score a goal, so they made it difficult for Manchester City, if not Manchester City, to even play more than Arsenal in that match.

Pep Guardiola is probably right because this are the biggest clubs in the champions league so anyone among them that wins the other will likely emerge the winner of the champions league so the both teams are faced with the responsibility of winning. Taking a look at their head to head, Manchester city have won Madrid more because they won Madrid 5 times then Madrid won them 4 times so this might be an opportunity for Madrid to equalize the head to head on 5, 5 wins but it is not an easy one at all because Manchester city though are still premier league contenders but they are not certain if they can win the trophy so they will want to win the Champions league so as to achieve an important trophy this season.

Jude Bellingham is a good player, he has shown a lot of commitment since he joined Real Madrid and it will be a game to watch because Erling Haaland on the other side of Manchester city is also a notable player and of such the both teams are made up of high profile players so this match will be more of "the clash of giants".

Kevin De Bruyne is no longer injured and he returned to play matches for Manchester City several weeks ago, had some impressive matches, scored some goals for them too. He only does not play magnificently like previous seasons but problems probably come from Manchester City system too. This season, they have less options to rotate for finding creativeness and danger in their attacking system. They only have three players for it, De Bruyne, Foden and Silva but last season they had Gundogan and Mahrez.

Depends too much on these players make their attacking system is more easily predictable and opponents can defend their goalkeepers better.

The match against Aston Villa is a big win for Manchester City with a hat-trick from Foden, again Foden saved them in this season. Grealish is back and he can be an ace under sleeves for Pep Guardiola in matches against Real Madrid. Doku is another hope for them but this young player has more bad performances than good ones so far in this season.

This will not be a problem for Manchester City because in the previous season they were like that too and they were able to get through the busy schedule very well.
All teams will experience the same thing, not just Manchester City but they will certainly put a higher focus on their Champions League matches.

De Bruyne is still injured while Haaland's performance seems to have decreased slightly after he recovered from injury and now there is no Kevin De Bruyne to support him so Haaland is having a little difficulty.
The match against Aston Villa was actually very difficult for Manchester City because they were in the title race, but even though Pep Guardiola rotated players, this did not have a big impact on the performance of the Manchester City team and also what was seen proved that the Manchester City team had prepared for the match against Real Madrid well quite well and they proved to be very focused in the match against Real Madrid compared to matches in their domestic league.

Last match Pep Guardiola success make rotation after winning over Aston Villa and next match Manchester City will make more than 80% rotation players because facing most weakness team Crystal Palace. Its not problem for Manchester City with three days left before facing Real Madrid in champion league match because Pep Guardiola have rested kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland will be fresh for facing Madrid.

Last premier league match against Aston Villa, Pep Guardiola rested many main players and seems against Crystal Palace have many players will put on the bench for facing Madrid. Its warning for Madrid although they have more day taking rest but Manchester City keep with the full players for first leg match except with Kyle Walker and seems Ederson still injury.

Manchester City have a really tight fixture lately. They have another PL match to play in 2 days and only 3 days after that one they are going to play the first leg in the Champions League. Guardiola has a really tough job to do truthfully. Because they are in a fierce fight for the PL title on the other hand. He can't just do a big rotation as a result.

De Bruyne and Haaland were rested in the Aston Villa match. However Haaland's rest might have a different reason. His form has dropped a lot lately as you know. 

I really wonder who we will see there in the first leg, Haaland or Alvarez?

I also buys into your sentiment about Bayern Leverkusen, because since they will be playing in Europe most prestigious competition, the uefa champions league next season, they will definitely face a much stronger test than they have face throughout this season, and in other for them to to be able to cope with the pressure of expectations, they definitely have to strengthen their squad.

And as for Bayern Munich, if Bayern Munich do not improve massively next season, they would still struggle next season, unless their is a big changes within the team that makes the team to be much better than this season, if not, Bayern Leverkusen will still dominate them, because I believe that Leverkusen is their to stay, as long as xabi Alonso is still their manager.

Bayer Leverkuse will have to face with a very chaotic summer because not all of their star players will want to stay with the club. Some of them will want to leave and find other bigger clubs to satisfy their ambition. Leverkusen will receive many big offers from big clubs for star players and they will not be able to keep all of their star players for a next season. This is first big challenge for Leverkusen's board members to solve in the summer.

There is another big challenge, next season, playing in Champions League will be big difference than this season. It will force Leverkusen to focus on Champions League and they will have less attention on Bundesliga. Even they want to play well in Bundesliga, defend their title, it will not be easy because they don't have too deep player resource.

This is another big challenge for Leverkusen, simply because Bayern Munich will not stay quietly and do nothing. They will buy players, enhance their squad, find a new coach and challenge Leverkusen to win Bundesliga again.

Next season will be a real challenge for Leverkusen. They will play in the Champions League and that is a high level competition. Xabi must be able to rotate players and add variations to match tactics. I think club management will give Xabi a budget to find the players he wants. And for tactics I think if you play at a level like the Champions League you really need a variety of tactics because strong teams from other leagues will look for your weaknesses. And if they find your weaknesses then the teams in the domestic league will also find out your tactical weaknesses if you lack tactics.

The next challenge is that Bayern Munich will be better prepared for Leverkusen. I'm sure this season they really didn't expect Leverkusen to be a problem for them. And they definitely won't let that happen again next season.

Both of Premier League and UEFA Champion League are most important trophies for Manchester City in this season, although had dominance for several years winning Premier League I think Pep Guardiola keep priority for defending the EPL trophy. Pep Guardiola unhappy with FA how Premier League schedule most busy and Manchester City has three matches in one week.
Last victory against Aston Villa last night its show with Manchester City won't loss chance for winning Premier League this season and currently waiting Liverpool or Arsenal losses their points on upcoming match.

Between Real Madrid and Manchester City had good performance for this season, its difficult for predicting who will qualify to quarter final round but Manchester City only has three days rest and Madrid get more than one week will be favorable for winning the first leg match.