Topic: UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season - page 587. (Read 141787 times)

Won't Kevin recover from his injury by the Champions League game or at least by the 1/4 stage? As far as I remember he will already be fit and Manchester City will not be without one of their key players for these matches. Even if you think about it that way, the 1/8 match is not so difficult to worry about the absence of some players

I think the away match for the first leg will not be a big problem for Manchester City because with the strength they have of course they can beat Copenhagen. On the other hand, for Copenhagen, the first leg will be a good moment for them to win because if Copenhagen fails in the first leg, it will automatically be quite difficult for them to win in the second leg. For now, both teams can use their free time to develop better strategies before this match starts. But I think Manchester City will not think of this match as the big pressure they will face because Pep knows the best way for the team when the game is almost close to starting.

Meanwhile Kevin De Bruyne will re-join the squad which will certainly be a strong addition to Manchester City. Well, maybe we have to wait for the line-up of players from both teams because if Manchester City goes down with a perfect squad, of course they will be able to perform better and become the favorite team to win this match.

Kevin De Bruyne is arguably one of the best players in the Premier League. In a few years, he will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the icons of the Premier League. İlkay Gündoğan was also a midfielder who scored a lot of goals despite being a midfielder. Especially in critical moments, he could come on the scene and change the fate of the match. He was very cool and very professional. Kevin De Bruyne suffered an unfortunate injury and Manchester City were helpless. But it was clear that Ilkay Gundogan would leave the team. I think Manchester City should have made a good signing to replace him. They are a bit wrong in this regard.

I feel like that is not really a realistic expectation that City would have any trouble at all. I do agree that when you are playing away, I mean like when you are playing at Copenhagen, that might be a big trouble during the winter but looks like it may not be all that cold weather period neither, not sure we have to wait and see. However, when the game comes to Etihad, I think it is going to be as easy as it could get.

I don't care if they put all 10 players on defense, City is getting through that defense one way or another, they have done it to much better teams and they will do it to Copenhagen as well. City is just unreal level of talented team and they are going to end up winning, KDB might even return, and I think they can win even without him.

They are the defending champion but seriously, that has never meant anything to any team in the Champions League. You don't get anything for it. You have to prove it again in every single game that is ahead of you. But Copenhagen can only try to be as aggressive and physically intense as they possibly can. It is all about the physical condition in that game. They can't compete with Manchester City in terms of passing accuracy or dribbling, but they can give Manchester City an extremely hard time to score the first goal and then wait for their chance to score a lucky shot or something.

I don't think Manchester City achievement last season winning Champion League tittle depend both them only between Gundogan and De Bruyne but also have more important key midfielder Rodri. I think Manchester City not matter when losing Gundogan or De Bruyne but not for Rodri, in this season Manchester City performance stable on the winning trend when Rodry playing but not guarantee if there are have De Bruyne Manchester City will easily win every match.
Losses Gundogan not much problem for Manchester City in this season and De bruyne absent can back up well by Rodri, I think Manchester City must find the same level players when Rodri have absent.

He was absent at some points last season for Manchester City and they adapt and played with likes of other chances creators Mahrez and Gundogan who helped to fuel the attackers with lots passes. Even the Champions League finals was played without Kevin De Bruyne at a point in the game since he was Injured. They're struggling this season and you day winning the Premier League without these two players? There's no way on earth that's happening.

Winning the Champions League comes with a lot of zeal amz determination, I don't think they have to to do a back to back win. Nobody can be like Real Madrid when it gets to the Champions League. Class!!

I would say that these are the only interesting games in 1/8. There is also an even pair of PSV - Dortmund, but this sign is a little lower level. In the remaining pairs, the result looks a foregone conclusion (although of course there will be surprises, as always).
I can’t say that Napoli looks good in the Champions League against the backdrop of two defeats to Real Madrid and the fact that, theoretically, Braga could knock them out of the tournament in the last round. But in the Napoli-Barcelona pair, the Italians will be the favorites for me in both games, Barcelona looks very weak.
In the pair Atletico - Inter, I don’t know what forecasts to make yet. Closer to the games, maybe something will be more clear, but now this pair looks to me as random as possible.

Sure, Man City should be superior against Copenhagen. Man City is the defending champion, they also have a better squad, and they are managed by an reputable coach. If we compare Man City and Copenhagen, Man City is a much better in any field. But we can't ignore that there is a chance for a surprise in UCL matches. Although Man City will play with full team, they may be not in their best condition. The players who just recover from injury, probably won't suddenly play with their best performance. Sometimes some players will get difficulty to perform in their best level after they get injury for a long time. So, I don't want to expect much for De Bruyne and Haaland.

I'm also making it obvious to those who believe Manchester City has a free ticket to the round of eight, that Copenhagen is a terrific team that deserves to be recognized because they cannot be underestimated. Copenhagen is one of the teams that conceded fewer goals in the group stage; they have good defenders who can withstand pressure for long periods of time, which was the main strategy they used to qualify, particularly against Galatasaray in their last group stage match, where Galatasaray was the favorite and had more attempts in the first half, but Copenhagen took advantage of the opportunity they had to advance to the round of 16.

Copenhagen lacks the experience of Manchester City's players, despite claims that they can compete with them, even without certain important players, Manchester City will defeat Copenhagen. Manchester City have received a bonus to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals, Manchester United have not been in good form this season, which is why they can defeat Galatasaray and Copenhagen in the group stage to qualify to round 16, because when the draws are made, I expect Bayern Munich and Manchester United to qualify, but they fail due to their poor performance this season. Manchester City can still win the Champions League this season because de Bruyne is a very gifted player who passes very well to forwards incredibly passes to Haaland. and now that Manchester City have Doku real madrid need to prepare very well if they meet together in the quarter finals in the Champions League because he will stress the defenders.

I agree with you guys that KDB and Haaland are the most important part of the attack. But I think Julian Alvarez and KDB's replacements such as Foden are doing well in the attacking area. KDB and both Haaland will be back before the games of UCL against Copenhagen I believe.

But I think you guys are wrong about one thing and that is that Rodri is the most important player in the Manchester City squad. Just check the stats of Manchester City's win rate of when he started the match and when he did not. Manchester City almost won all the matches when Rodri started and lost many games when Rodri did not. He was the most valuable player in the Club World Cup a few weeks ago. That tells you how valuable he is to the team. He was also out of the team and now that he is back, look at how they came back in the league topping Arsenal in the league table with one match to spare.

But I believe if these players were unavailable, Manchester City would win against Copenhagen.

Regards

Duke

I will not deny what you said for Real Madrid, especially in the La Liga competition, yeah Real Madrid is in a convincing trend. in fact, Don Carlo was able to mix up his squad to be more productive even though they didn't have the pure stickers that were their mainstay. these young players contributed quite a lot when playing their matches in the Domestic League. even though they don't have a center forward to rely on, even though they actually have Joselu, Ancelotti prefers to play him on the bench. Madrid's front three players are very influential.
in fact, IMO, the system that Ancelotti implemented is no different from when Benzema was still in the Real Madrid squad. it''s just that for now, Don Carlo has changed the pattern for his team's squad. however, in terms of gameplay and system, there are no significant changes. we know that Ancelotti relies heavily on the Brazilian duo on the wings. while Bellingham, he became an attacking midfielder and at the same time positioned himself as a center forward. when the Brazilian duo has difficulty creating opportunities, these two players will shift more to the flanks and Bellingham is always their target man. that's why Bellingham has scored 13 goals in his 17 matches. Don Carlo implemented this strategy with a different style and characteristics. likewise, the midfielders they have are no less good and always make a contribution.

In La Liga, Madrid rarely experiences significant obstacles, but the competition they will face will be different from the teams competing in La Liga. which means Madrid cannot underestimate any team that is their opponent, including RB Leipzig. let's just say that Madrid can beat Leipzig either home or away. after that, maybe Madrid will face a pretty tough team. for example, Bayern Munich, or City. and these two teams have the chance to overthrow Real Madrid if they meet. at the same time, a real test for Real Madrid's young players when facing other established teams.

Their midfield was key last season and if we now think about who is left of that midfield, both are gone. Gundogan and De Bruyne. Since the two controlled the whole Manchester City game and also scored goals and gave countless assists, it doesn't come as a surprise that now when both of them are absent the game is much worse than it was last season. I think this is probably the difficult task ever for Guardiola to find two successors for Gundogan and De Bruyne who are able to manage the Manchester City game on the same level.

Indeed. Yes, let's see how Man City has performed since the start of the season without some of their key players, especially Kevin de Bruyne. No matter how good the replacement, de Bruyne's position and contribution cannot be replaced. His skills as a playmaker at Man City are truly extraordinary and cannot be replaced by any other player there. That's why since De Bruyne was absent due to injury, Man City's performance, especially Haaland and also several other players, has not been as optimal as before. It cannot be denied that he is still a key player for the club.

That's why, now that de Bruyne is starting to return to the match and may be joining in the UCL match later, Man City's hopes have increased quite a bit. However, we cannot be sure whether De Bruyne's performance will really be the same as before or not, because after all, a player who suffers a long injury will still have an impact on his performance.

This is how it used to be, basically when a club relies on or builds a team around one particular player who is the playmaker of that team, But the case with Manchester city should have been a different one with the number of quality players they got there in the team, the absence of one particular player in the name of Kevin De-bruyne, shouldn't make the team to struggle in winning their games when his injured or have a different case.

I'm very sure about city not trying to underestimate Copenhagen even if they know too well that they are very likely to win Copenhagen without much stress, guardiola usually have got a very different approach with which he handles the champions league, so he will definitely not leave this for Copenhagen.

I'm the group stage Bayern Munich is the team that could be likened to city here in the round of sixteen against Copenhagen so comparing their performance against Bayern Munich in the group stage where they met twice we can tell to a great extent how much they can perform against city because city is even more experienced than Bayern Munich. I'm sure Copenhagen will have it tough with this one because city is definitely not going to make it easy for them in both home and away meetings, this may end Copenhagen champions league journey this season.

Obviously, Bruyne has a big influence on the team's performance because obviously, it has been proven that without Bruyne in the first half of the season, Manchester City must work extra to get good results in every match. After all, the benchmark in the Champions League is not only about playing against Copenhagen, because of course, Manchester City must also have excellent preparation for the next phase in the Champions League and also in the Premier League.

Therefore, recovering Bruyne and Haaland is very important for Manchester City. After all, no matter how great Manchester City is but if their key players are injured, it will obviously greatly affect the team's performance. At least, you can also compare it with Real Madrid as the king of Europe when they get some of their key players injured, then the team's performance also decreases.

So ya, you cannot just consider that Manchester City is a big team and does not need Bruyne and Haaland because after all, these two players are the key to Manchester City's success too.

Kevin de Bruyne’s impact in Manchester City cannot be overstated. He is the playmaker in the team and ensures Haaland gets the goals. Manchester City has a great squad on the pitch and on the bench. They are not a side that can be affected greatly by injuries. Despite the absence of KDB and Haaland, Manchester City have a good chance of finishing the game as winners. Manchester City may experience some difficulties winning games in the EPL without KDB but surely not against Copenhagen.

City must not underestimate Copenhagen. But what we need to know is that Copenhagen experienced a difficult time in the group stage and they qualified for the next round after they surprisingly beat Galatasaray with a goal scored by Lukas Lerager and in the 1st leg Lerager couldn't play because of a red card. So I think it will be an easy win for City.
City certainly won't underestimate Copenhagen because this is the Champions League so just one defeat will have a big impact on a team.