At 4:00 a.m. Beijing time on March 13, the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, Premier League leader Manchester City sat at the Etihad Stadium to meet last season's Bundesliga runner-up Schalke 04. The two sides met in the first leg, and Manchester City reversed the opponent 3-2 away from home in the face of a 10-man match, laying a solid foundation for the promotion in the second leg. However, Manchester City's home stadium is not indestructible, and Guardiola's platoon still cannot be slackened. The good news is that Schalke 04 squad leader Calijuri is injured in the league and will be ironclad to miss this game.
Highlight 1: Leading by one goal is not secure, and the Etihad has been attacked by the opponent
In the first leg of the match between the two sides, Manchester City once faced 10 people and fell behind their opponents 1-2. At the crucial moment, Sane and Sterling broke out with two sharp knives on the flanks to help Manchester City regain a victory on the road. In the first leg of the match, Schalke 04 has sounded the alarm for Manchester City, and they are not weak. With a 1-goal lead and three away goals, City's advantage looks like it's great, but it's by no means foolproof.
This season, City have lost at home in the Champions League. In the group stage against Lyon in Ligue 1, Manchester City lost 1-2 to their opponents. In last season's Champions League knockout rounds, Manchester City also lost at home to Basel and Liverpool. It turns out that Manchester City's home stadium Etihad is not indestructible, and Guardiola must not take the enemy lightly. Don't forget, Manchester City also has the suspension of Fei Bird and Otamendi, de Bruyne and Aguero.
Watch point two: the king of the team is injured, will Schalke 04 give up early?
Recently, Schalke 04 is in a very sluggish state, losing 2-4 to Bremen in the last round of the Bundesliga, with no victory in the last 6 games, 1 draw and 5 defeats, and the Bundesliga ranking has fallen to 14th, only 4 points away from the relegation zone. What's worse is that The king of the Schalke 04 team, German midfielder Calijuri, has a sprained ankle and will miss at least 4-6 games. Some German media pointed out that Schalke 04 is likely to choose to give up strategically in this game and send substitutes + young players to play. In this case, Schalke 04 wants to be upset away, which is too difficult.
Watch point three: Tintin is not there, can Sterling and Sane continue to fly on both wings?
On 4 March, in City's 1-0 win over Bournemouth, De Bruyne was injured with no one in midfield and was replaced by Mahrez. It was also De Bruyne's third injury situation this season. In the absence of De Bruyne, Manchester City had to rely more on the side attack, and Sterling and Sane became the team's attackers. In the Premier League game at the weekend, Sterling scored only 13 minutes of a hat-trick, scoring six goals in the past six games, and the form is very hot. As for Sane, in the first leg against his old club Schalke 04, he scored a stunning free kick!
Predict the first launch
Manchester City (433): 31-Ederson/2-Kyle Walker, 4-Kompany, 14-Laporte, 35-Zinchenko/20-Bernardo Silva, 8-Gundogan, 21-David Silva/19-Sane, 33-Jesus, 7-Sterling
Schalke 04 (3421): 1- Fairman/17-Stambly, 26-Salef-Sane, 5-Nastasia/2-McKinney, 8-Zelda, 10-Bentaleb, 3-Mendri/36-Embolo, 22-Skozybski/19-Burgstaler