In the first leg of the 1/4 finals of the Champions League, Manchester City hosts Bayern Munich. Many football fans wanted the meeting between these two teams to happen as late as possible in the competition, but the draw decided that it would happen now. There is no doubt that we are expecting a very exciting match, possibly with a lot of goals, because both teams are known for that. In the last few games, the Manchester City game left a better impression on me personally. They seem truly unstoppable of late and apart from a minimal win over Crystal Palace, they simply destroy all opponents in front of them. They are currently on a streak of 8 wins where they have an unreal goal difference. They scored as much as 31 goals and only conceded 3. It seems that some of the small team disagreements that have been talked about are behind them and it is fun to watch them play again. In addition to the great Haaland and De Bruyne, it is worth mentioning Grealish, who justifies the invested money from game to game. He took advantage of the absence of Foden in a great way and with two goals and an assist in last two games, along with a great participation in the game, he becomes one of the most important players in the team. I believe that this match will start from the first minute and that he will cause a lot of problems for Joao Cancelo, whose defense is not really his strong point.
Thomas Tuchel led Bayern for 3 games and in my opinion, he lived up to the expectations of the fans in only one. In the match against Dortmund (4-2 for Bayern), the Bavarians seemed superior in every segment of the game and the result could easily have been more convincing. I believe that the fact that it is the biggest derby played a big part in such a game, and not so much the tactical ideas of the new coach. Already in the game against Freiburg, we could see a completely different style of play. Bayern did have more possession of the ball, but at no point were they a superior opponent on the field. A similar game was seen in the league match against the same opponent, in a match where they won only thanks to De Ligt's great shot. Without any doubt, Bayern has great attacking abilities, but the question is whether Tuchel is a coach who can use it to the maximum. In some moments, the offensive part of the team seems rather clueless against a team that is very well positioned in defense, and this is exactly the Manchester City team. The absence of Choupo-Moting can be an important thing for Bayern, because they really lose strength in aerial duels. They will have to opt for playing on the ground, and City's defense is very well equipped technically for such a thing. I don't want to diminish the quality of Bayern, but I think that City is a much more stable team at the moment. We all know that winning the Champions League trophy with Manchester City is Guardiola's great wish, and it really seems that with Haaland in the team, he has a team that can make it happen.
