adminLONDON. — Manchester City cannot afford another defeat tonight at home to Barcelona, who thumped them 4-0 two weeks ago, having taken just one point from their last two Champions League Group C soccer matches.That third successive win for the Catalan pass-masters means they need only a draw in the return game to ensure their annual qualification for the knock-out stage.
City, however, are in danger of losing second place in the table to Borussia Moenchengladbach, who sit one point behind them going into a home tie with Celtic. Although they beat Borussia 4-0 on matchday one, Pep Guardiola’s side still have to travel to Germany for a game that could decide which team qualifies with Barcelona.
Former Barca coach Guardiola was as chastened after the Nou Camp loss, when Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick and City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo was sent off, as he was on a previous return there, which resulted in a 3-0 loss for his Bayern Munich team in the 2015 semi-final. At least Bayern recovered some self-respect by winning the second leg 3-2 on that occasion and a repeat would suit him perfectly. Achieving it would also be a historic result for the Premier League leaders, who have lost all five previous meetings between the clubs, including round of 16 games in 2014 and 2015.
At least they ended a run of six matches without a win — the worst of Guardiola’s managerial career — in emphatic fashion on Saturday, romping to a 4-0 success at West Bromwich Albion, where Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan both scored twice.
Aguero was surprisingly left out of the game at the Nou Camp, but Guardiola will need him at his best tonight.
“Aguero is a special player, we need him a lot,” the manager told reporters after the West Bromwich game.
“He is one of the best. I am going to help him to be much, much better. We know how important he is for us when he can convince us how good he is and how important he is for this club.”
While City will believe they can make inroads into a makeshift defence still missing Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba and Aleix Vidal, there will be greater concern about how their own back-line will cope with the dazzling trident of Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.
That may well prove to be the key to the contest.
Meanwhile, City’s English Premiership rivals Arsenal are also in action tonight when they face Bulgaria’s Ludogorets Razgrad in a Group A tie in Sofia.
Mesut Ozil scored his first professional hat-trick in Arsenal’s 6-0 whitewash of Ludogorets last time out. With Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez both grabbing braces at the weekend and Theo Walcott on a purple vein of form, the Gunners should have way too much for the Bulgarian champions.
Walcott joined in full-training with his Arsenal team-mates yesterday after starting the session separately, as the Gunners ready themselves for midweek Champions League duty against Ludogorets.
The England man is expected to be named among the substitutes for tonight’s game in Bulgaria after recovering from a minor hamstring problem, having missed Saturday’s 4-1 Premier League victory over Sunderland.
The 27-year-old could, however, be back in contention for Sunday’s north London derby against Tottenham.
Santi Cazorla and Nacho Monreal are still nursing their respective injury problems, though, with both players missing from Arsene Wenger’s final European preparation session yesterday. Plucky in their 3-1 home defeat to PSG, Ludogorets took a point at Basel and scored 15 goals in qualifying. But even if Arsenal fail to win here, they will qualify for the next round if PSG win in Basel.
Unai Emery’s PSG are starting to understand what the Spaniard wants tactically and they boast up front the red-hot Edinson Cavani, the Uruguayan striker who scored his 10th league goal of the season in a 1-0 win at Lille on Friday, where Angel Di Maria and Lucas showed promising fluidity around the targetman.
A victory in Basel assures PSG of qualification, but Basel are unbeaten at home this season.
In Group B, Besiktas are at home against Napoli in Instanbul.
Turkish champions Besiktas will go top of Group B if they follow up their 3-2 away win over Italians Napoli with a home win over them at their new stadium, where they have won 13 of their past 14 league fixtures. Euro 2016 star Ricardo Quaresma continues to impress for Besiktas and his free-kick and Cameroon striker Vincent Aboubakar’s brace brought their thrilling victory in Italy. For the visitors Spain’s Jose Callejon is the man to watch after he scored a seventh goal of the season in a 2-1 Italian league loss to Juventus on Saturday. Napoli can book a place in the next round if they win and Benfica draw with Dynamo Kyiv.
After a draw with Besiktas and a thumping at Napoli, Benfica got their campaign back on track with a 2-0 win at Dynamo in the last round of matches. The Portuguese champions and league leaders are on astonishing form, especially at their Stadium of Light stronghold.
Fixtures (all 9:45pm unless otherwise stated)
Group A: Basel v Paris St Germain; Ludo Razgd v Arsenal
Group B: Besiktas v Napoli (7:45pm); Benfica v Dynamo Kiev
Group C: Bor Monchengladbach v Celtic; Manchester City v Barcelona
Group D: Atletico Madrid v FC Rostov; PSV Eindhoven v Bayern Munich. — Reuters.
Online Reporter