Man City breathed a sigh of relief after completing the task of qualifying for the group stage. When they were led by Club Brugge at home in the final round, many fans of The Citizens were extremely worried. They feared that their team would be eliminated after just winning the tournament in 2023.
Finally, three goals in the second half helped Man City successfully turn the game around. They need to overcome the upcoming play-offs to advance to the round of 16, where Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen are waiting.
Before the final round of the qualifying round, when asked about Man City's strength, Real Madrid captain Carlo Ancelotti said that his opponent was still one of the championship candidates. It is unclear how much diplomacy there was in Carletto's statement, but if Man City were placed next to other big teams at this time, they would be quite inferior.
This season, Man City has experienced the worst streak of matches in the Premier League era, making the chance of defending the title almost zero. In the Champions League, having to face Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the upcoming match is worthy when all three had disappointing matches that prevented them from finishing in the Top 8.
If you look at their performance in the national championship, Man City is rated much lower than Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. However, when entering the Champions League, all three have the same fate of having to play in the play-offs. Each team participating in the qualifying round will play 8 matches, so such poor results cannot be blamed on bad luck.
If Man City are rebalancing the stability between attack and defense, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich are both unbalanced. Real has a super strong attack but the defense has too many holes, the opposite happens to Bayern. When in the same imperfect version, the 3 teams are still rated equally, especially when entering the life-and-death series in the play-off round.
"We deserve it (to face Bayern Munich or Real Madrid). I don't know if they are happy about facing Man City. This is the reality and we will not complain. The opponent in front of us will be the king of this tournament or the team ranked 2nd or 3rd in the table" - Pep Guardiola shared after the victory over Club Brugge.
Man City counterattacked very well against Club Brugge but the pressure was no longer there throughout the match. The endurance of Phil Foden and his teammates has decreased a lot compared to previous years, so often at the end of the match, Man City is confused and very prone to making mistakes.
If forced to choose between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Etihad fans would probably hope that the draw would bring them to face the "Gray Tigers". Real Madrid, despite their imperfect qualifying journey, are currently in very good form in La Liga. Facing a super attack from Los Blancos at the moment, with a lack of manpower in the defense, will be a risky challenge for Pep Guardiola.
The reverse defeat to PSG showed that Man City's defence only needs to face a fast attack. With Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo Goes and Jude Bellingham in good form, Man City's defence will not be able to withstand.
