UCL QF 2020/21 | Manchester City - Borussia Dortmund

Haaland and I guess Sancho will surely pose the kind of threat Man City usually struggle with, the fast transition players.

But Dortmund seem to have too much trouble keeping goals out and City just have so many capable players.

Impossible to plan for, no idea who will play and where. City have no excuse not to come through this really.

The Franchise wrote:Haaland and I guess Sancho will surely pose the kind of threat Man City usually struggle with, the fast transition players.

But Dortmund seem to have too much trouble keeping goals out and City just have so many capable players.

Impossible to plan for, no idea who will play and where. City have no excuse not to come through this really.

BVB are rather poor as a team this season, I don't see how they can possibly threaten City over two legs.

Their approach. set up, plan, application as a team, and also their individual quality is very, very inconsistent at the moment. Not for nothing they're struggling to reach top 4 in Bundesliga.

I don't know much about Porto, but at least they seem to know how to park a bus, and so I'd call BVB the weakest team in the QF.

City will concede some goals, but will be easy winners in the end.

Guardiola is used to get knocked out from the surprise or player "sensation" of the moment, Mbappe at Monaco ,... Haaland now ?

Robespierre wrote:Guardiola is used to get knocked out from the surprise or player "sensation" of the moment, Mbappe at Monaco ,... Haaland now ?

Nah, BVB are too poor

Il piccolo Erling Braut Haaland con la maglia della squadra in cui ha giocato suo padre Alf-Inge dal 2000 al 2003, e la consueta espressione affabile. Ora ci giocherà contro in quarto di @ChampionsLeague pic.twitter.com/B2OdYyVWas

— Giuseppe Pastore (@gippu1) March 19, 2021

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Robespierre wrote:Guardiola is used to get knocked out from the surprise or player "sensation" of the moment, Mbappe at Monaco ,... Haaland now ?

Nah, BVB are too poor

Yes, their lost badly against Lazio at Roma .........

but we had thought same about Lyon ...

Well I certaintly expect City to control the game, score goals and create chances. But I think Dortmund showed enough vs Sevilla to suggest at least on the counter attack they will pose a threat.

Now can they be defensively solid enough and avoid errors? Doubt it. They might be the weakest team for that reason alone.

Robespierre wrote:

Il piccolo Erling Braut Haaland con la maglia della squadra in cui ha giocato suo padre Alf-Inge dal 2000 al 2003, e la consueta espressione affabile. Ora ci giocherà contro in quarto di @ChampionsLeague pic.twitter.com/B2OdYyVWas

— Giuseppe Pastore (@gippu1) March 19, 2021

His dad captained Man City at one point. It doesn't necessarily mean anything, in terms of likely transfers.

If anything, the match against Sevilla showed how weak Dortmund are as a team. Call me biased if you want, take Haaland out of the equation, and they were dominated by an assumed lesser team.

Unless Dortmund somehow become a far better team than what I've seen over this season, City should take this comfortably and that's even if Haaland and Sancho wild out.

Hope Gio Reyna gets some minutes. I expect Gundogan to pop up with at least a goal against his former side at some point during this tie.

McLewis wrote:

Hope Gio Reyna gets some minutes.

I hope he gets some minutes, too. He was in great form near the end of last season. He's looked more subdued and anonymous in this one.

If Pep gets eliminated against this Dortmund in current form, I will lose all the respect for the bald fraud. At least I admire him now and hate him at the same time. But if he crashes out, all the people saying about Pep "he was lucky to have those special players at Barca" will be true thane ever.

Robespierre wrote:

Il piccolo Erling Braut Haaland con la maglia della squadra in cui ha giocato suo padre Alf-Inge dal 2000 al 2003, e la consueta espressione affabile. Ora ci giocherà contro in quarto di @ChampionsLeague pic.twitter.com/B2OdYyVWas

— Giuseppe Pastore (@gippu1) March 19, 2021

what a dumb little fuck

no excuse for CITY . Dortmund is a perfect opponent for them ( open game ).

You guys do realize were speaking about Pep here? The man lost to Lyon who were 7th in thier league and after beating Spurs in 6-7 straight games lose in the CL to them without Kane

I can already see the man drawing up 1000 scenarios in his head and already sense him preparing to make this round overcomplicated.

Entertaining games should be, with Man C well on top as many said above, Dortmund just arent good enough at the back.

haaland looks like a young serial killer in that pic lol. Glad he directed all that towards scoring goals...

Winter is Coming wrote:You guys do realize were speaking about Pep here? The man lost to Lyon who were 7th in thier league and after beating Spurs in 6-7 straight games lose in the CL to them without Kane

I can already see the man drawing up 1000 scenarios in his head and already sense him preparing to make this round overcomplicated.

I actually forgot about the Spurs loss. High chance Pep may actually really over complicate this match...

Winter is Coming wrote:You guys do realize were speaking about Pep here? The man lost to Lyon who were 7th in thier league and after beating Spurs in 6-7 straight games lose in the CL to them without Kane

I can already see the man drawing up 1000 scenarios in his head and already sense him preparing to make this round overcomplicated.

It wouldn't surprise me if he fields a 5-3-2 in the away leg with both Fernandinho and Rodri playing midfield to combat Haaland.

If Dortmund could actually defend, I'd have them favorites for this tie. I have City going through with a 60% chance. If Dortmund scores first, Dortmund's chance of going through is 70%. The United game is all I needed to see that City hasn't changed when their backs are against the wall. If they concede first, the game will turn end to end, Sterling/Jesus will miss a sitter, and Haaland will score whatever chance comes his way. Then again this Dortmund team isn't impressive at all so maybe it isn't 70%, but still favorites if they get the first goal.

Unless City is so much more dominant than their opponents, I have a hard time seeing them win the CL with their lack of efficiency. Even if they are the best team in the world, I have zero trust in them scoring in a crucial moment. That's the difference between them and Bayern.

The Lyon of the last CL knockout tournament and the BVB of now are not comparable
We played Lyon in the semis, they were great.

Pep starts Foden and Bernardo and no 5 at the back BS than city puts the tie to bed or at least takes a 2 goal lead into the second leg. Already anticipate him starting Sterling and benching Bernardo. I would go with this formation:

Walker-Stones-Dias-Cancelo
Bernardo-Rodri/Fern-Gundogan
Foden-KdB-Jesus

Casciavit wrote:

Winter is Coming wrote:You guys do realize were speaking about Pep here? The man lost to Lyon who were 7th in thier league and after beating Spurs in 6-7 straight games lose in the CL to them without Kane

I can already see the man drawing up 1000 scenarios in his head and already sense him preparing to make this round overcomplicated.

It wouldn't surprise me if he fields a 5-3-2 in the away leg with both Fernandinho and Rodri playing midfield to combat Haaland.

If Dortmund could actually defend, I'd have them favorites for this tie. I have City going through with a 60% chance. If Dortmund scores first, Dortmund's chance of going through is 70%. The United game is all I needed to see that City hasn't changed when their backs are against the wall. If they concede first, the game will turn end to end, Sterling/Jesus will miss a sitter, and Haaland will score whatever chance comes his way. Then again this Dortmund team isn't impressive at all so maybe it isn't 70%, but still favorites if they get the first goal.

Unless City is so much more dominant than their opponents, I have a hard time seeing them win the CL with their lack of efficiency. Even if they are the best team in the world, I have zero trust in them scoring in a crucial moment. That's the difference between them and Bayern.

This is a guarantee with Laporte as a FB.

I doubt MAn C would be as bad as the Man U when it comes to finishing in the CL this time, I mean that Man U game was so bad, it really felt like a fixed match where Man C players avoided scoring, they were lazy and way off target, nothing like the usual hit the bar, great saves from the GK, etc.

Definitely generally true though Man C tend to need to be so very dominating and xG far ahead of their opponent in order to go through in the CL. Luck definitely has been a factor I think in the past few seasons too, so in that sense surely they should have better luck this year? Bayern will probably be the biggest challenge though obviously, but as much as they dominate and score goals, they also miss a lot and still suspect defensively. Cant wait

Guardiola not playing an experimental 11, benching his worst finishers, and playing KDB false 9 with Bernardo in midfield?

Seems like the baldie is finally learning