Manchester City will try to repeat last season's win at the Allianz
Arena when they open their Champions League campaign with a game against
Bayern Munich.
Both Vincent Kompany and Manuel Pellegrini have
spoken about going into the game full of confidence with nothing to
fear, although the Blues still face a stiff test against the German
champions.
M.E.N Sport looks at five aspects of the game that City could target in their approach to try and come away with the win.
No direct threats (other than all of them...)
It
is of course 11v11 in every game, but Bayern are very much a team as a
collective rather than a number of individuals. No player scored more
than 20% of the team's goals in either the Bundesliga or the Champions
League last season, and their top scorer domestically has left for
Atletico.
It means City will have to be wary of several threats,
but does take the pressure of targeting the likes of a Messi, Ronaldo,
or Ibrahimovic away. As long as every starter in the City XI goes
toe-to-toe with their man, the Blues should stand a decent chance.
Don't be afraid to give up possession
City
will in all likelihood spend more of the game in Munich without the
ball than with it. It's no secret that Pep Guardiola likes his teams to
dominate possession and they did it tremendously well in Europe last
year.
Franck Ribery (33) and Philipp Lahm (29) made more key
passes than any other player in the Champions League last year.
Cristiano Ronaldo was trailing in third with 22.
On top of that,
the now-Real player Toni Kroos completed more passes than any other
player. Unsurprisingly considering their last-16 exit, no City players
made the top ten in either category. But ceding possession shouldn't
worry City.
The Blues only averaged 47% possession in the
competition last year, yet still won half their games. And Bayern
clocked up a mighty 69% possession against Real in the semi-final... and
lost 4-0
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