Jamie Carragher backs Man City to win the Champions League, claiming they are ‘stronger’ than others
Jamie Carragher is confident that Manchester City can finally win the Champion League and become ‘legends’ by picking up a cup treble when competition restarts following the coronavirus suspension.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought a halt to European football in March, but it is hoped that the Champions League can be played to a conclusion in August.
While the focus of domestic football’s return is centred around Liverpool winning their first league title in three decades, Carragher insists City’s chances in Europe should not be overlooked.
Jamie Carragher is confident that Manchester City can win the Champion’s League this year
‘I do not see any side in the tournament better than City, or any who will match the intensity of the Tottenham and Liverpool sides which denied Guardiola in the past two years,’ Carragher told The Telegraph.
‘Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and Bayern Munich are the greatest threats, although the LaLiga champions still have work to do to beat Napoli, and Bayern must finish the job against Chelsea to reach the quarter-finals.
‘Even if City are paired against the French and Spanish champions, I believe the technical nature of those games would suit the English club. They would be much different types of encounters to their past two quarter-final defeats.
‘PSG have a massive disadvantage going back into a tournament without having played any league football because the French league was cancelled, and Barca are not what they were — the manner of their most recent exits, to Roma and Liverpool, showed that.
‘That leaves Guardiola’s former club as the most dangerous potential opponents, helped by their earlier return to Bundesliga action. I still believe City are stronger.
‘That is why, wherever and whenever the competition concludes, City are my favourites. I doubt there will be a club that wants it more than them.’
Carragher says he does not ‘see any side in the tournament that are better than Man City’
Should City win the competition, it would be the first time in the club’s history to have done so
Having become Champions League regulars in 2011, City are yet to see success in the competition, having reached the semi-finals just once in 2016 and bowing out in the quarter-finals in the previous two seasons.
UEFA have pencilled in August 8 as the date the Champions League makes its long-awaited return, with Juventus set to kick things back off when they take on Lyon in the second leg of their round-of-16 clash.
City’s focus must, however, remain focused on what is happening on the pitch, rather than off it.
UEFA recently announced that they are facing a two-year ban from European action due to a series of Financial Fair Play breaches in the middle of the last decade.
City have appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, with the club’s chief executive Ferran Soriano stating the accusations are ‘simply not true’.
