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Manchester City Fan View: Champions League should not define season

It has already been a successful season for Pep Guardiola
It has already been a successful season for Pep Guardiola

Manchester City are heading into the business end of the season with the knowledge that the Premier League title will be won within weeks. When they do resume, they will be a minimum of two games away from confirming their status as Champions. If it isn’t done within that time, it will only be a week or two later.

The lack of pressure on the league run will result in increased focus on the Champions League. City are in the quarter-final for only the second time in their history; two matches against Liverpool stand in their way of a semi-final appearance.

The last eight game between England’s best team and the up-and-comers from Merseyside is casting a giant shadow over the rest of the campaign for both clubs. All ties at this stage of this elite competition are huge, but this one seems to have greater magnitude than normal. A rivalry that has increased in intensity in recent years will mean that whichever side wins will find it a particularly sweet experience and the loser will feel the bitter pain of defeat more than they would against a foreign opponent.

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For Pep Guardiola’s City, the Champions League feels winnable for the first time. The Blues first qualified for the tournament in its current iteration in 2011 and they’ve been involved in every season since then. Their early appearances were unsuccessful; in the first season they crashed out at the group stage despite gaining a creditable 10 points and in the following year they humiliated themselves, exiting at the same phase and without a single victory.


Following seasons brought Round of 16 defeats to Barcelona until finally, under the tepid stewardship of Manuel Pellegrini, they reached the semi-final. City then produced a pathetic, tame display against Real Madrid – though they only lost 1-0 on aggregate and were just one step away from the final, the truth is they looked further away than ever. They proved that again last season with a Round of 16 catastrophe against AS Monaco.

This season, City stand as one of the best teams in Europe and they have no reason to fear any opponent. We know that Liverpool are capable of beating City – they have done it once this season after all – but let’s not forget that the Blues are a whopping 18 points ahead of the Reds in the league. City are a much, much better team than Liverpool and if the tie goes to form, Pep’s men will be taking their place in the last four.

For as big as this game is – right now it feels like a monolith looming large over the rest of the campaign – it’s important to keep a sense of perspective. You’d be forgiven for thinking that if City don’t get through, their season will be a failure.

That will absolutely not be the case. For what it’s worth, I believe City will beat Liverpool and from there, anything could happen. But if they don’t, this must still be remembered as the best year in the history of this football club.

They will win a league and cup double for only the second time in their history. This season bares no real comparison to 2014 when they last achieved that feat. This time, the Blues have blown the competition out of the water in the Premier League. There is nobody close.

Winning the Champions League in Kiev would, as a stand-alone achievement, be magnificent. As part of a treble – the club’s first ever – it would be extraordinary. But for all of that let there be no mistake; Manchester City are now a great football team and this has been a great season