Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 572. (Read 141787 times)

Seriously? That is, Copenhagen has good (not equal but at least tangible) chances against City in a two-game confrontation? I'm sure they have zero chance. Even if by some miracle City gives Copenhagen victory in the first game, then in the return they can easily win 6 - 0 or something in that area. The remaining pairs may be more equal (although there are also clear favorites in most pairs), but I am sure that everything is decided here before entering the field.

I know Mbappe can leave PSG when he is out of contract for PSG, and there is nothing PSG can do to stop his transfer to any club he wants to play for. But it is very hard for players like Mbappe to leave for free.

It could be said that Copenhagen needs a miracle to beat Manchester City, because we understand that the level of strength of the two teams is very different. Copenhagen was lucky to qualify for the round of 16 because United performed poorly, and it looks like City will finish this match easily. That doesn't mean there were no surprises at all, but the best thing the Danish representative could do was hold Pep Guardiola squad to a draw. As you said, the return of a key player like Kevin De Bruyne will certainly benefit Pep, his presence in the lineup will make everything easier.

I feel that City will have no difficulty in reaching the quarter finals, and maybe it will also be easy for them to reach the semifinals if they face a club that is not the favorite again. However, that is only a personal assumption, without underestimating any team in the round of 16. Because we understand that sometimes we lose our luck because we believe too much in our favorite team, we will take another look at the preparations of both teams ahead of mid February.

When Mbappe's contract expires, Mbappe can leave for free. Unless Mbappe extends his contract, PSG can't do anything in this situation. Honestly, I hope Mbappe won't extend his contract, so there will be no more drama between PSG and Mbappe. If Mbappe really has the intention to leave PSG, he won't accept the offer for contract extension.

De Bruyne, Doku, and Haaland are the key players of Man City. When they recover from injury and play again for Man City, they surely will bring significant impact on the squad. I'm sure Man City will be strong again, they will focus on achieving another success in any competition. So, it is interesting to see how Man City performance in the second half of the season.

There is nothing wrong with what you say, but we can also refer to what Pep Guardiola did during De Bruyne's long injury. in the matches they have played this season, it is natural that City is not as sharp as last season. clearly, there are significant differences. manchester City, last season, was quite fierce with its 3-2-4-1 pattern, and always beat its rival team with a landslide score. both in the Domestic League and in the Champions League. if there is a difference, yes, it is clear that the departure of Gundohan and Mahrez means Pep must do something ideal for his squad. one of them, bringing in several new arrivals. but that alone was not enough for Pep, especially after De Bruyne was injured. so, it looks like he is trying and planning something for his squad. I see that Pep never assigns his players to the same position, except for a few players in particular who are mainstays on the front line. Just see, if the Manchester City architect prefers to experiment by rotating some of his players.

My conclusion is that he is exploring the potential of his players and trying to maximize it as he wants. apart from that, Pep also rarely plays Jack Grealish in the Premier League. more precisely, Grealish always starts in the Champions League. my assumption is that he did this to maximize his players, especially newcomers. and I am also sure that Pep is fully aware of the risks he is taking. however, the proof is that City still has the opportunity to overtake the teams above them in the Premier League. now De Bruyne is back from injury, in the first match he played quite impressively even though it was against a team that was not very strong. however, with his presence, Pep can now freely apply his system, especially since the first half of the season has passed and now is the time for City to prove their toughness again. it could be that Pep will always rotate players in every match they play. what is certain is that City's chance of qualifying for the next phase of this competition has a high probability. plus, they also have a good chance of continuing to compete for the title in their domestic league.

IMO for now no one will doubt Manchester City in this match even though Copenhagen is one of the big clubs in their domestic competition but in the end they may not mean anything in front of Manchester City.
The current situation if we look at it as a whole i think Manchester City are superior in any case especially with the return of several players such as De Bruyne, Haaland and Doku then indeed this is a difficult situation for Copenhagen.

They struggled to qualify for the 16th round of the Champions League this time and were immediately faced with the defending champions so the best option that could be done was to try to get a draw in a match that was done with their defense to make the speculation different in the penalty shootout but in the end it was also not an easy thing to do because in the end we know that it will be very difficult to realize that when their opponent is Manchester City.

This is also how I feel about PSG and Mbappe saga that is the talk on the transfer market now. PSG are not foolish to let him go like that after spending so much money on his signing and salary. Mbappe will also not want PSG not to benefit from his sell after all the good offers he has enjoyed with them. It is still not clear where Mbappe will be moving to next but it’s almost impossible for Mbappe to leave the club without compensating PSG for that.


Manchester City will be on a high mood now that most of their players are fully back from injury and more will soon be back in few weeks time since theirs is a short time injury. Now that the round of 16 of the champions league is fast approaching, every team will be looking forward to have a full squad that will give them an edge over their opponents. With the way the group stage matches of the champions league went, no team can be underrated and most of the teams will have equal potential of making it to the quarterfinals. This is no more about team’s success story but about what you can offer in the pitch to get a qualification for your team.

I was very surprised to see the play of Jeremy Doku and he was the right winger to replace Mahrez who last summer had left for a Saudi league team. Pep Guardiola is a genius at seeing the talent of young players and it didn't take long for him to convince Jeremy Doku to join Manchester City. I think if Manchester City had been a little late in bringing him in, maybe another team would have wanted to try to sign him.

But here Jeremy Doku has proven his prowess that he had developed at his previous club Rennes and now his career is just a matter of time before he continues to shine with Manchester City. This will also be the first time he will be in a major Champions League competition and will be a very meaningful experience for him. Can't wait to see the new attack line with Jeremy Doku, Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland, it will definitely be very difficult for any team to stop them with their vision and agility.

I'd love to add, Jeremy Doku,  Erling Haaland and Credit to that Manchester City defenders who barely get them flowers and the praises they deserve. Amongst this defense are name like Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol, Kyle Walker and also Ederson who be so confident at goal.
They're all top lads and they contribute to push the plans of Josep Pep Guardiola for the club. You can't write them off, the success of the club has to do with everyone. I'm not just a fan of Jack Grealish lol.


Against Copenhagen, I'd love to see once again, Copenhagen did well against Bayern Munich also, keys see what happens when they face the defending Champions.

By February the knock out stage for the UCL will kick off and for some teams, it'll be an easy slide through regardless of the notion of the strongest teams being the ones able to scale into this stage. City and Copenhagen would go against each other and it's very much clear that City would be the survivors. They're the title defenders and take any chances to get disqualified at the round of 16.

 Their key men are back and set to run and definitely that's enough charge to weigh down Copenhagen. Yes, in their home ground, they may try to put up a battle but I'm certain that City will be capable to overturn them. They're way ahead of them in capacity and ability too. As always, the round of 16 will have as much fun as there can be in it and it's greatly anticipated. Preparations and games would definitely be intense too.

Them whoever Manchester City haven't faced should be ready for chaos', it won't be easygoing for any side playing with all this creativity. Erling Haaland must have already rested enough and should be safe and sound now to kickstart the second half but f the season, he should go above Mo Salah when the going gets hot.

Having Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland, Bernado Silva, Rodri and Kevin De Bruyne with all these creativity? They could be successful with them chase of the Premier League, but not the Champions League.

Paris Saint Germans at this point can't stop and halt Kylian Mbappe, the way it stands he is the Boss, and whatever decision he makes affects his careers growth both negatively and positively.

Yes indeed, it is not right to compare Copenhagen with Manchester City because of course, Manchester City has better quality in all factors. Also, even if for example Haaland is still not available to play, but the fact is that Manchester City will still promise to get a win against Copenhagen later . So ya, there is no good reason for Manchester City failure in this match, because onpaper it is certain that Manchester City will win and will certainly qualify for the quarter finals or maybe until the final round . So ya, there is no good chance for Copenhagen against Manchester City later and also, no matter how good preparation Copenhagen makes for this match but ya, the reality will still be difficult for Copenhagen to be able to beat Manchester City, or it is a tergat that will never happen.

I totally agree with you about one topic especially. The Ligue 1 isn't the right place for a player like Mbappe. We are talking about how amazing player he is and we already classify him as different from most players. It doesn't matter to me much either to see him scoring whatever amount of goals in the French league.

The Ligue 1 isn't much of a competitive league when we compare it to leagues such as the English Premier League, La Liga and so on. He definitely needs to join a much more competitive league to make a big jump in his career. This is the only way of becoming a real legend in football history.  

It is fantastic news for City as they welcome back their players from the treatment table, i think only Stones and Prolly Akanji are injured right now, but not serious injuries anyway, so they should be back in a few weeks or even less. It is good for a manager to have every player fit and available, especially a manager like Pep who likes to tinker, change tactics frequently and start players out of their original positions. City finally won the CL last season, but that is just one and i am pretty sure they'd want to do it again and again, just as they are doing in the EPL, it would definitely be tougher but not impossible.

I was glad to learn of De Bruyne back from injury too. I missed him mostly for Manchester city and am sure his contribution was missed more by the teammates who have gotten used to his style of midfield play and through passes to the striker up front.
His return doesn't also that the team will automatically get better, because he just returned and might be too careful so as not to go back to injury.

PSG will of course learn from several previous cases. Mbappe is too controlling for PSG, this is not good for the team's survival.
Therefore, they learn not to prioritize one player too much. We can see from PSG's last few purchases that they prioritize young players who are not too expensive.
They are no longer targeting European megastars who have fantastic value. This also cannot be separated from the role of coach Luis Enrique.
Therefore, it is very likely that Mbappe will be released so that the team atmosphere is more balanced, Mbappe can move to a club that has a history of being able to manage a star well, such as Real Madrid.

Yeah good news, de bruyne contributed 1 assist in the last match. Im happy seeing him back and hope de bruyne won't be injured again. City has been trying so hard to keep its performance in domestic and european cup.
The club lost several times because of the incompetencies by club caused by missing some important player like him. Pep guardiola has a very good efficiencies in game management, but since he has no good player to replace de bruyne then the club could always depend on rodri.

The absence from some key players was almost ruining manchester city. Manchester city can still be very close to the liverpool which is good. It's time for city to show who is the best now.
Im sure that the comeback of de bruyne has made a big impact on the club. City can regain its confidence again after it was losing it last season. We still yet again wait haaland to comeback.

These are the three players that make up Mancity now,Rodri,Silva and Debruyne,they are three players that really hold the club at the moment.Every player is important,but these are unit where if they should leave,it will have a great effect on the team's performance.Example was when Rodri was  sent out for rough tackle,Mancity went on to lose three straight games because there was no holding midfielder in the team which left the team porous.But now,they have all of them back, including Debruyne who has been absent for a long while.

As far as i know that if PSG has been getting a replacement for mbappe but this player was not popular among the football fans. Enrique may still try to search for the best candidate to replace him as soon as possible, caused by mbappe will be leaving soon.
This is going to be another challenge for enrique caused by the club will be losing its goal machine soon. Mbappe will never be replicable and enrique needs to remember it. He needs only to find someone who can perform as good as mbappe but not same like mbappe.
There are so many wingers that can be targeted by him and i do appreciate that if enrique will able to recruit the world class winger from other club. The club can start to approach someone like vini that may be leaving from the club.
Im not really sure if vini will be leaving from there caused by he was always become the main choice ancellotti. This means that if mbappe may also play as right winger in real madrid soon.

Although all teams are doing everything they can to stay in the tournament, Manchester City is far superior these days. I believe they should proceed to the next round; nothing can prevent them from doing so. Even though Copenhagen were promoted from the group stage, I'm not convinced they can advance to the next round because their present performance is a little low, therefore they can't be compared to Manchester City. I'm not stating this by mouth. I am confident Manchester city, that they will not left behind according to my forecast.