Manchester City has one of the strongest teams in the world and will try to continue its dominance in England this season. The team that has been led by Pep Guardiola with great success for years has not yet managed to win the Champions League. Winning this trophy will be the primary goal of this team this season as well. Pep Guardiola can be overjoyed by the results that most of his players have produced at the World Cup. By that, we don’t mean that the Spanish coach is happy because they were successful but for another reason. At the World Cup in Qatar, Manchester City had the most players from the strongest European clubs. Only one Manchester City player made it to the finals of the championship. Julian Alvarez with Argentina managed to make a noteworthy result.
All other players have been eliminated in the quarterfinals before. A particularly disappointing performance was Kevin de Bruyne, who ended the competition with Belgium in the group stage. Kevin did not believe in success with the national team. After the bad game with Canada, De Bruyne said that Belgium cannot be the world champion because they have too old players. If Lukaku had used one of the chances against Croatia, we might be talking differently now. One of Belgium’s best players is a key player in Manchester City’s new championship campaign. Guardiola is very pleased that his best player left Qatar so quickly. Once again, football did not return home, so England will still be waiting for the second world championship title. Manchester City gave several players to England for the championship in Qatar.
Phil Foden has played brilliantly this season for Manchester City scoring seven goals. Even he was not enough for the English to win the title. Stones, Walker, Grealish, and Phillips played for England, but they all returned home earlier than expected. Like the English, the Portuguese also failed to achieve the desired result. Portugal had one of the best teams in the World Cup but was eliminated by the biggest sensation, Morocco. Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo, and Ruben Dias return to Manchester with great disappointment. Spain played very badly in Qatar. This national team managed to achieve only one victory. After demolishing Costa Rica, the illusion of a strong team was created, which was defeated by Morocco already in the round of 16. Rodri had a big role in the game of the Spanish team, but he also returns to England very disappointed.
Like Belgium, Germany finished the competition already in the group stage. The 2014 world champion will start rebuilding the team after another bad result. From Germany, Ilkay Gundogan is playing for Manchester City, but it is a big question how long we will see him in the national team. Gundogan is already 32 years old, and he will be 34 at the next European Championship. Germany has the ambition to win the championship, which it will host. It remains to be seen whether Gundogan will crown his career in the national team in that way. Gundogan played great last season, and this season he is recording good games for Manchester City. Guardiola is happy that Germany was eliminated in the first stage of the World Cup. Brazil played the group stage quite well, so their fans hoped that they could reach the title in Qatar.
That did not happen because Brazil was already eliminated by Croatia in the quarterfinals. For a country that has 7,000,000 professional soccer players, losing to the aforementioned country that has 4,000,000 people is a big failure. Ederson, who has been keeping Manchester City’s goal in Qatar for several years, was a reserve. He left the position of starting goalkeeper to Alisson from Liverpool. Manchester City players Akanji and Ake also performed in Qatar. Ake was one step more successful as the Netherlands lost to Argentina in the quarter-finals. Akanji managed to pass the group stage with Switzerland but suffered a convincing defeat against Portugal in the round of 16. We can say that the players of Manchester City recorded disappointing performances in Qatar. Players who play for one of the best teams in the world are returning to England much sooner than most fans expected.
Guardiola can be overjoyed by this fact. For him, the most important thing was that no one gets hurt at the World Cup. Pep is happy that the national teams of most of his players did not go far. It should also be noted that two great players did not play in Qatar at all. Erling Haaland plays for Norway, which we haven’t seen in major competitions for years. The aforementioned player, who is one of the best strikers in the world today, is unlucky to play for that national team. There was speculation that he could play for England because he was born in this country, but like his father, he plays for Norway. Haaland is unstoppable this season and before going on break he scored 18 goals in the Premier League. We will see how the break due to the world championship has affected him.
Many football experts and fans believe that Haaland is the player who could bring the title to the Champions League. At the World Cup, we didn’t even have the chance to watch Riyad Mahrez playing for Algeria. Mahrez was only a few moments away from the opportunity to perform in Qatar. In the end, that didn’t happen because Cameroon got the necessary result in an uncertain ending. In the previous part of the season, Mahrez cost Manchester City better results in some matches when he failed to convert penalties. Regardless, he is a great player and Guardiola can be glad that this player is rested. If someone had offered Guardiola this development of the situation before the World Cup, he would have been overjoyed.
We all expected much better results from the Manchester City players in Qatar, but that is not Guardiola’s problem. At the time of going into the break, Manchester City was second in the Premier League behind Arsenal. In the last match played, Brentford defeated Manchester City on the away field. It was the second defeat of the season for the team from Etihad, and only Liverpool managed to beat last season’s champion. Arsenal has not won in just two games and are five points ahead of Manchester City. In the continuation of the season, we will watch the first duel between these rivals. If City wins, they will be back in the title race. If City were defeated in that match Arsenal would have a big advantage. We expect an exciting continuation of the season, so be sure to buy Manchester City tickets.
We will see what the fans of the London club can look forward to it after many years of waiting. If we look at the quality of the two teams, Manchester City has the edge, but football is a game where the better team doesn’t always win. As for the Champions League, Manchester City will play Red Bull Leipzig in the knockout stage. City is a big favorite in that match, but in previous seasons we have seen big disappointments from this team in the mentioned competition. Guardiola has a contract with Manchester City until 2025, and there is speculation that he could soon get a new job. Brazil disappointed the fans in Qatar and Tite was sacked. Pep Guardiola is one of the coaches who could replace him, but he is not the only name mentioned. Manchester City has only Ederson among the players who play for Brazil, but Guardiola can jump for joy because other national teams with many more players did not make a name for themselves in Qatar either.
