Very big night indeed tomorrow – glad most of our players are fit for this one...at last!
v Paris Saint-Germain
First time ever in the quarter final stage
of the Champions League and now a really
good chance to make it into the dizzying heights of the semis! Wowzers!
Now regular readers and those who know me
should know that, as a still-developing football club under our current owners,
I still see ‘all things domestic’ as our main priority. This is (and most certainly will do under Pep Guardiola)
starting to change more towards the glitz of top European football. But we are
still, right now, way off the likes of Barca, Bayern and Real…and
probably Atletico Madrid too.
Of course it doesn’t escape me that, as
that very-same growing football club, we NEED to progress and compete in the
Champions League in order to attract some of the best players from around the
world; to expand our growing army of worldwide fans and keep the inflow of cash
from prize money and investors. I’ve got all that – noted & stored in my memory banks.
But where it still gripes me is that whilst
rising as a footballing force; bringing in better players and, hopefully one day, seeing the fruits of
the City Football Academy; we should not
let it affect TOO much our domestic obligations, especially the all-important Premier League.
That’s my stance anyway and, for this
season, I’ll also chuck-in a little bit of evidence too…
Tottenham Hotspur away before we travelled to Borussia Monchengladbach, although slightly
forced by some growing injures, ended in a terrible performance;
particularly at the back and, which, resulted in a 4-1 defeat.
At home to Liverpool
before an away visit to Juventus, Pellegrini picked an AWFUL ‘first 11’
and we were humiliated at home; once again on the reverse of a 4-1’er.
Stoke City away was one of ‘the’ worse performances of the season and, again, very poor player
selection; as Pellegrini clearly had one eye on our home game against Borussia
Monchengladbach and losing, as we did, 2-0.
Baring in mind,
folks, that it’s not advisable to lose more than 4 league games if you wanna
have a chance of winning the league; there’s 3 for you ‘straight off’…
There were occasions throughout the season
where we won our league games before we
faced European opposition…but I believe this competition has, the way our
manager has gone about his team selections, severely dented our main ‘bread
& butter’ campaign; the one that fans go to see the most throughout the
season. That’s just not right at the moment for me...
BUT…here we are and I can’t help getting wrapped-up in the spectacle of
it all as well as the excitement of ‘getting a crack’ at a 2-legged semi-final.
I will be chuffed
as anyone if we win tomorrow and so very proud
and excited if we progress to the final itself, even if we don’t win it in the
end.
I just wish it hadn’t come at the price of
us-now nail-biting to see if we can finish 4th in our home league…
Anyway…on with a predicted line-up, subs
and outcome.
4-5-1
/ 4-2-3-1:
____________________Aguero____________________
__De Bruyne_____________________________Silva__
____________________Toure_____________________
___________________________Fernandinho________
_____________Fernando_________________________
Clichy_______Mangala_______Otamendi______Sagna
______________________Hart_____________________
Subs: Caballero, Kolarov, Zabaleta,
Demichelis, Delph,
Navas, Iheanacho.
Joe to continue in net and, hopefully, to
continue his fine performances both domestic & European.
With the players available – and no disrespect to Pablo Zabaleta
whatsoever – that’s probably the
strongest defence we can muster for this one.
Fernando likely to continue his largely fine
performance; less of the silliness that we saw between him & Joe in the
first leg of course and likely to be our main ‘defensive screen’ in front of
the defence itself. Slightly ahead of him in a duel defensive / attacking role is his ‘Fern’
partner in the middle of the park. I think, ahead of those two, we’ll see a
largely attacking trio of Kevin, Yaya & David across from left to right.
Sergio to be the lone striker to, hopefully,
be the recipient of some fine creativity from 3 or 4 of those behind him.
A
strong ‘starting 11’ to, hopefully, put PSG on the ‘back foot’ and go even
further ahead in the tie.
Decent bench too – Willy the keeper
insurance; Aleks (who had decent games against both Bournemouth
(as a late sub)
& West Bromwich Albion), Pablo and
Martin the defensive changes if needed. Delph likely / surely to at least make the bench; Jesus & Kelechi likely / hopefully the attacking options from ‘the 7’.
Notable absences: Vincent
Kompany (injured), Samir Nasri (not eligible for Champions League / not selected in squad
for this competition), Raheem
Sterling (injured) and Wilfried Bony (not selected).
A rare comment on those missing /
likely to be missing tomorrow: Surely…SURELY our manager sees the
need to include Kelechi on the bench and with the others I’ve predicted on the
side very much needed in reserve also; SURELY then the
one to be ‘squeezed out’ on this occasion is Wilfried Bony.
Do I agree with Pellegrini’s (predicted)
line-up?
Sure do – can’t argue
at all if that was to be ‘his 11’.
Result?
I think we're ‘on’ for this. Yeah they might score with the dangerous attacking
options they have but having-had a look at their defence, I think we can expose
them more than once and score more than them tomorrow night (7:45pm KO BST).
With the additional bonus of a couple of their key players at least being suspended for this one; I think it’s a win
on the night for us and, therefore, we won’t even need the away goals that we’ve managed
to accumulate. Semi-finals here
we come!
Expected weather conditions during
the game: Dry, overcast, barley a breeze and not too cold at 9C. However...be warned those who are going to the match; the
last on-line BBC and television forecast for WBA last Saturday was BOBBINS, as it absolutely bounced down for at least 1-½ hours rather than the 'showers' it forecasted!
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