ROUND-UP
City’s second leg tie with Barcelona is, understandably, the focus of journalists both home and abroad this morning, as it will be tomorrow.
City’s second leg tie with Barcelona is, understandably, the focus of journalists both home and abroad this morning, as it will be tomorrow.
The Blues begin the game 2-0 down to the Catalans but nobody, it seems, is writing Manuel Pellegrini’s side off just yet.
The general feeling is an early City goal will give the Champions League second leg a completely different complexion – and Barca are well aware of the Blues’ fire power.
Cesc Fabregas is quoted in The National as believing his team need to be at their very best to progress in a report that reads: “Barcelona’s hopes of retaining their La Liga title have taken a huge blow since returning from Manchester as consecutive away defeats to Real Sociedad and Valladolid have left them four points behind Real Madrid.
“And Fabregas insisted they still have plenty of work to do to ensure they reach a seventh straight Champions League quarter-final.
"We cannot let it become an open match, running up and down the whole time because that plays to their strengths,” the former Arsenal captain told Uefa.com
‘We need to control the game by having the ball and creating opportunities, but the most important thing is to finish our attacks so we don’t allow them to play on the counter-attack.
‘I think we need to be almost perfect to ensure we go through to the quarter-finals.'”
Meanwhile, the DSSC's Ian Ladyman focuses on what will be an unusual team-talk for City ahead of the game.
He writes: “Manuel Pellegrini will deliver the most important team talk of his season from the Manchester City team hotel on Wednesday night ahead of his teams clash with Barcelona in the Champions League.
“The City manager will be banned from speaking to his players once he gets to Barcelona’s famous stadium as he is serving a two-match touchline ban for comments he made about referee Jonas Eriksson after his team’s 2-0 first leg defeat at the Etihad Stadium.
“The Chilean, therefore, will address his players two hours before kick-off at the team hotel before they leave for the Nou Camp.
“It has also emerged that Pellegrini will risk antagonising UEFA further by refusing to attend the traditional pre-match press conference in Barcelona this evening.
“Concerned that he will face too many questions about his conduct after the first game, Pellegrini has decided to stay away tonight and will instead send assistant Brian Kidd to speak to the media.”
Finally, The Bleacher Report carries an interesting feature on why Barcelona should fear City, despite leading 2-0 from the first leg.
Rob Pollard believes the fact Sergio Aguero is fit again will unnerve the home defence and if the Blues are to pull off one of the most incredible comebacks in Champions League history, Kun will almost certainly have a huge part to play.
“Barcelona also lost at the weekend, 1-0 away to Valladolid, and they suffered a 3-1 defeat to Real Sociedad in the game immediately following the first leg. It seems there is a vulnerability previously absent that City need to capitalise on if they are to stand any chance,” writes Pollard.
“Sergio Aguero's return to fitness is also key. Barcelona's high line will be dreading his pace in behind, and that uncertainty will help City push them back.
“Twice during his time at Atletico Madrid Aguero scored two goals in impressive wins: a 4-2 win in 2008 and a 4-3 win 2009. In total he managed six goals against them during his time in La Liga. They do not like facing El Kun and the Barcelona backline will have one eye on the Argentinian throughout the match.
“There's no doubt City face a tough task and are unlikely to progress, but there are reasons to be mildly optimistic. Their 3-2 win over Bayern Munich in the group stage earlier this season is evidence that anything can happen in football.
“City went there with a second-string side and beat the best club side in the world; a side who have since gone on a 16-game winning streak in the Bundesliga.
“Sitting back and being conservative won't work. City must attack, and with little expectation and pressure, the shackles should come off. For the neutral, and early goals is an absolute must and, if that happens, the tie is back on.”
City set for Stamford Bridge striker raid
Manchester City are lining up Chelsea striker Fernando Torres as part of a summer shake-up which will see forward Edin Dzeko sacrificed, [football] direct news understands.
Bosnian hitman Dzeko has no shortage of suitors, with Serie A outfit Inter Milan leading the chase according to a source close to the Blues, while potential replacement Torres is available for a fraction of the £50million his club paid for him in 2011.
The source told FDN that boss Manuel Pellegrini’s patience has snapped with a number of fringe players and he sees cut-price Torres as a good option.
Pellegrini feels the 29-year-old would link up well with Spain colleagues David Silva, Jesus Navas and Alvaro Negredo at the Etihad Stadium and that the title challengers’ style of play would suit him.
The City manager must also make a decision on £22m summer acquisition Stevan Jovetic, who has been plagued by injuries since arriving from Fiorentina.
According to the club insider, City turned down two approaches from Inter Milan in January, while Turin giants Juventus have expressed an interest in signing him on a permanent basis.
Everton set to welcome Jack Rodwell back after Manchester City misery
• Midfielder unable to secure City place under Manuel Pellegrini
• Everton tried to re-sign Rodwell on final day of transfer window
Roberto Martínez intends to offer Jack Rodwell a summer return to Everton following the midfielder's struggle to make an impact at Manchester City.
Rodwell switched from Goodison Park to the Etihad Stadium 19 months ago in a deal worth an initial £12m, rising to £15m. His time at City has been a major disappointment, however, and Martínez hopes to capitalise on the boyhood Evertonian's frustrations by bringing him back to Merseyside on a permanent contract at the end of this season.
The midfielder, who turns 23 today, has been unable to secure a regular first-team place with the Capital One Cup winners and has found himself out of favour under Manuel Pellegrini as well as dogged by the hamstring problems that plagued his development at Everton. Rodwell has made eight appearances since Pellegrini replaced Roberto Mancini at the Etihad with the last ending in a half-time substitution as City trailed Watford 2-0 in the FA Cup fourth round before prevailing 4-2.
Everton tried to re-sign Rodwell on the final day of the January transfer window but were thwarted when City were unable to land the Brazilian midfielder Fernando, and his team-mate Eliaquim Mangala, from Porto. That proposal was for a loan deal, with Everton turning Gareth Barry's temporary move from City into a £1m permanent transfer to overcome the Premier League rule that prevents a club loaning two players from the same team.
Rodwell has not featured for City since Everton's inquiry and the England international's prospects of making Roy Hodgson's World Cup squad have all but disappeared given his problems at club level. The Everton manager believes the Southport-born player will be receptive to a return to Goodison in the summer but City would have to accept a significant loss on Rodwell for the deal to proceed.
Martínez has been heavily reliant on Barry and James McCarthy in central midfield this season and it was the former's tired challenge that gave Arsenal a pivotal penalty in Saturday's FA Cup exit at the Emirates. Everton's once-promising campaign has faltered badly since January with the club slipping to seventh in the Premier League, albeit with a game in hand on sixth-placed Manchester United.
Defeats at Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea in the league have pushed Everton out of contention for Champions League qualification but Martínez claims his team have improved.
"I think at the beginning of the season you get those teams who are expected to win titles because of the financial approach," he said. "We are in a position where, because of our football club and our history, we should be expecting to win titles. It is going to be a bit of a process but I think you saw we are not far from being able to go to Arsenal and be able to get through to an FA Cup semi-final.
"Now it's a matter of making sure the small margins get affected in our favour and we can progress without expecting to go into big places like the Emirates and be beaten. The performances are showing that we're starting to develop that belief so the next stage is to be able to reflect it in the scoreline."
Eden Hazard does HMV: Man City favourites as they have better players
According to the Sky Sports Chelsea winger Eden Hazard insists Manchester City are still favourites to win the Premiere League title despite his side at the top of the table.
An opener from Samuel Eto'o, a penalty goal from Eden Hazard, and two late strikes from Demba Ba sealed Chelsea’s 4-0 victory over Tottenham at Stamford Bridge on Saturday giving Blue Lions a seven-point lead.
Though Chelsea are now 13 points ahead of third placed City, Manuel pellegrini’s side still have three games in hand.
City are likely to win the title race if they win all the matches from now till the end of the season.
“Manchester City will become champions if they win all of their games. But if we get the chance, we will take it,” Sky Sports quoted Hazard as saying.
"We have enough quality to play for first spot, but City are still favourites as they have the better players.”
"It's more difficult to be second or third with some games less as you have to win those games. We'll see what happens at the end.”
"The season is still long, I feel a bit tired, but I'm not the only one.”
"If we want to win something this season, we'll have to survive games like those against Spurs"
Why does Manuel Pellegrini keep picking Martin Demichelis?
“You are all idiots.” With those words, Sir Alex Ferguson swept the tape recorders off his desk and marched from the room. He thought the media’s treatment of Juan Sebastian Veron had been ignorant and unforgivable. A decade later, when sitting down to write his second volume of autobiography, Ferguson conceded the press might have had a point. Veron was a great and very expensive midfielder but he didn’t fit in anywhere at Manchester United.
At least Veron was never depicted as a cartoon donkey, which has been the fate of his sometime Argentina team-mate, Martin Demichelis, during his six tortured months at Manchester City. There are moments that define a season. When City were relegated to the third tier of English football, it was a balletic, almost unrepeatable own-goal from Jamie Pollock. In what once seemed would be a season of four trophies, it has turned on two tackles by Demichelis.
The first was on Lionel Messi which, since it produced a penalty and ensured his own dismissal, would have unravelled every pre-match calculation his manager, Manuel Pellegrini, had made before facing Barcelona.
In a way, it was understandable. The world’s greatest footballer was clear on goal. The lunge at Marc-Antoine Fortuné, who is not even the greatest footballer in Wigan, was unforgivable. The penalty gave Wigan the belief to humble Manchester City in the FA Cup for the second successive year.
Long after the final whistle, in the Etihad’s concrete corridors, Samir Nasri was asked how he felt. “I don’t know. I cannot find the words because I am so disappointed.” He was not blaming his team-mate but everyone knew what had been lost. Demichelis was, nevertheless, a logical choice for Pellegrini to take to Manchester. The Chilean had never played or managed in England before and he would have wanted the reassurance of someone he knew.
When Bobby Robson first hired Jose Mourinho to be his assistant it was with the instruction: “I want to know what they are saying about me in the dressing room. If you lie to me, I’ll sack you.” Peter Taylor signed Junior Lewis eight times and when they were at Bradford they had a ‘Mr and Mrs’ contest to see how well they knew each other’s habits.
There were other, tactical reasons. Explaining why they were so attracted to each other, the Barcelona midfielder, Xavi Hernandez, said: “Pellegrini always wants to play football from the back and he has brought Demichelis to Manchester for that reason. He has been criticised but he can bring out the ball from the back.” Pellegrini has known Demichelis since they were together at River Plate a decade ago. After the manager had been fired by Real Madrid and was relaunching his career at Malaga, he signed Demichelis from Bayern on the same wages he was being paid in Munich. In his first season, he helped prevent Malaga’s relegation. In his second he helped qualify them for the Champions League.
There were compelling reasons for a third spell together, especially since City’s owners have proved reluctant to spend on the unglamorous area of defence. The back four of Zabaleta, Kompany, Nastasic and Clichy cost £30m – roughly what Manchester United paid for Rio Ferdinand more than 10 years ago. At £3.4m, Demichelis was cheap.
However, at 33 he was increasingly unreliable. The six points Manchester City have conceded to Chelsea are likely to be critical when the title is decided. The 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge was Demichelis’ debut.
At the Etihad, he was employed in Fernandinho’s absence as a holding midfielder, a job he had done successfully at Bayern Munich. But that had been nearly a decade ago and Demichelis proved utterly unable to stifle Eden Hazard. When Chelsea returned for the FA Cup, the task was given to Javi Garcia. City won easily.
That win opened up the prospect of an FA Cup final that was effectively ended by one tackle from a man few in the crowd would have picked. The model Evangelina Anderson once advised women living with footballers to “hire ugly” if they were looking for domestic help. Evangelina’s husband is Martin Demichelis and, should Manchester City finish the season with just the League Cup, many will think Pellegrini has hired very ugly indeed.
Joe Hart - tie far from over
Joe Hart believes City can still turn the Champions League Round of 16 clash with Barcelona on its head on Wednesday night.
City need to win by two goals to at least level the aggregate after losing the first leg at the Etihad Stadium, but although the odds are stacked against Manuel Pellegrini’s side, the England and City No.1 says there is plenty of belief among the squad travelling to Spain.
“The tie is not over and we’ll go into the game remembering what we’ve done this season and what we are capable of and I think that’s how we have to look at it,” said Hart.
“A positive performance is key and a result would be fantastic, but we need to go out there and show we can really play against the likes of Barcelona.
“We’ve shown what we can do when we beat Bayern Munich away in December and while it’s going to be tough, it’s not impossible.
“I felt we were there in the first leg, had sized them up and were ready to go, but stuff happens in big games and if you give a predator like Barcelona a sniff of blood and unfortunately that’s what happens.
“Martin (Demichelis) was unfortunate and missed the ball by inches, but that can be the difference in games of this magnitude.”
Barca suffered another shock defeat in the league at the weekend, losing 1-0 to relegation-threatened Real Valladolid to drop into third position, four points adrift of leaders Real Madrid.
But Hart says form going into this game means little, with the Catalans capable of upping their game as and when needed for the big occasions.
He said: “Does their form have a direct bearing? It does and it doesn’t but we understand what big games do to Barcelona.
“They’ve been in the latter stages of the Champions League many times before while we are relatively new to it.
“I don’t think we can read too much into their league form away from home against the lesser sides in La Liga, especially as they are at the Nou Camp against a British side with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.”
With one trophy won, one lost and the Champions League dreams teetering on the brink, Hart is hoping the disappointment suffered against Wigan on Sunday can be channelled into a powerful display against the Catalans on Wednesday.
“To win four trophies was always going to be hard, but when you break it down, we can win every game we go into so it was a massive disappointment for us, but we can’t ignore that Wigan played well,” he said.
“I think the lads who played would be the first to admit we didn’t achieve our normal standards in the first half in terms of the energy and tempo we like to play at, especially in front of a sell-out Etihad crowd.
“There are no excuses but we have to learn from it and move forward, hopefully starting against Barcelona.”
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Manchester United are looking to rival Arsenal's bid for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata, 21, who is out of contract in 2015. Daily Star
Speculation linking Chelsea striker Fernando Torres, 29, and Manchester United forward Javier Hernandez, 25, with Inter Milan has been rubbished by Inter's president. Metro
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has decided against signing Valencia loanee defender Aly Cissokho, 26, on a permanent deal in the summer. Daily Star
Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, 31, currently on loan at Serie A side Napoli, can leave the club for as little as £4m at the end of the season due to a clause in his contract. DSSC
Manchester United boss David Moyes has opened talks with Sporting Lisbon over a £30m move for midfielder William Carvalho, 21.Sun
Stoke City boss Mark Hughes wants to sign Burnley striker Danny Ings, 21, for next season. Daily Mirror
Manchester United are keen on signing Germany midfielder Toni Kroos, 24, after he admitted he was open to a move from Bayern Munich to the Premier League. Daily Telegraph
Ajax will beat Manchester City and Liverpool to the the signing of Dutch forward Richairo Zivkovic, 17, from Groningen. Talkshit
Former Arsenal midfielder Alex Song says he will to return to the Premier League after his two-year stint at Barcelona. The 26-year-old is a target for Manchester United. Sun
Tottenham insist manager Tim Sherwood's job is safe, despite his claim that the "silence is deafening" over his long-term prospects. Daily Mirror
Tim Sherwood, 45, could be offered a route back into management - if he if he parts company with Spurs - at League One side Swindon Town. Daily Star
Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino is in advanced talks over a new contract as the South Coast club attempt to kill off potential interest from Tottenham. Daily Telegraph
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has pleaded with Norwegian referee Svein Oddmar Moen for a fair chance in Tuesday night's Champions League match at Bayern Munich. Independent
Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert says he is 'looking for more' from Bulgarian international striker Aleksandar Tonev, 24, but believes he has the attributes to succeed in the Premier League. Birmingham Mail
Sheffield United loan-signing Conor Coady, 21, hopes that helping the Blades reach the FA Cup semi-final will convince Brendan Rodgers that the midfielder has a future at Liverpool. Liverpool Echo
Former West Brom skipper Darren Moore believes the Baggies have enough character to escape Premier League relegation. Talkshit
Paris St-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 32, demanded Twitter extend its 140-character tweet limit just for him when he hosted a question-and-answer session on the site. Metro
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