Man City visit the Allianz Arena for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich with a healthy 3-0 lead, however, Pep Guardiola is clearly taking no chances with his team selection.
The Catalan has often been accused of tinkering with his squad in the biggest European games – the Irish Independent recall him doing so before the 2021 Champions League final – but with the prize of a semi-final against Real Madrid at stake, a strong starting XI has been chosen.
Even though they are at home the Bavarians will have to try and shut out Erling Haaland for the entire 90 minutes, which isn’t something that many teams have managed during the course of 2022/23.
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XI | Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Grealish, Haaland
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Walker, Phillips, Laporte, Alvarez, Gomez, Mahrez, Perrone, Foden, Palmer, Lewis#ManCity pic.twitter.com/ja4yFMF6rU
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 19, 2023
With Jack Grealish coming into his own now, and providing the bullets alongside Kevin De Bruyne for the Norwegian to fire, Bayern really do have it all to do defensively.
City don’t even need to exert themselves in the match, with one eye on the weekend’s FA Cup fixtures and a potential title decider in a week’s time against Arsenal.
That said it doesn’t appear to be in Pep’s nature to sit back and defend a lead, and The Guardian reported his press conference ahead of the match where he said that he wants his team to ‘punish’ the hosts.
With some serious talent left in reserve and come off the bench if required, it will require a monumental collapse from the visitors for them not to go through on this occasion.