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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Alex Brotherton

Liverpool, PSG and Bayern Munich show Man City should have no Champions League fears

Manchester City sent a warning message to their Champions League rivals on Tuesday with a convincing 5-0 win against Sporting CP, a result that all but guarantees them a place in the quarter-finals.

City were at their attacking best in Lisbon, with stunning strikes from Bernardo Silva and Raheem Sterling enough to send shivers down the spines of those who doubt City's credentials in Europe.

Pep Guardiola's City has never been a side too bothered about how their main rivals are getting on. Guardiola puts hundreds of hours every season into analyzing City's opponents and preparing tactical plans, but whether they are fairing well or not makes little difference to him.

However, if the other games that took place this week are anything to go by, then City should be in no doubt that they are favourites to win the competition, whether Guardiola wants to admit it or not.

As City was putting Sporting to the sword in Lisbon, the most anticipated fixture of the week was taking place in Paris, with Paris Saint-Germain hosting Real Madrid at the Parc des Princes.

The headline event, a match pitting two of the most glamorous teams in the world against each other, promised so much, but in reality, it failed to live up to its top billing.

Real Madrid is currently top of La Liga, but their display in Paris was nowhere near the level required to go far in Europe's premier club competition.

Carlo Ancelotti set his side up to take a goalless draw to Madrid, something they would have achieved were it not for a piece of 90th minute magic from Kylian Mbappe. The French striker is widely expected to join Los Blancos in the summer, but at their expense, he showed a spark of genius in an otherwise disappointing game.

PSG dominated the game, registering eight shots on target and an xG rating of 1.88. By comparison, Real Madrid didn't trouble Gianluigi Donnarumma once, despite fielding the talents of Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior.

What was notable was how PSG couldn't make their superiority count until the dying moments against Real Madrid.

On Wednesday evening, another tournament favourite was in action in Austria. Like PSG, Bayern Munich needed a 90th-minute goal to secure a result: a 1-1 draw away at Salzburg.

The Austrian side is one of the 'weaker' sides left in the competition, yet their talented youngsters punished some Bayern sloppiness to race into an unlikely lead.'

Admittedly, the German champions were without key players Manuel Neuer, Leon Goretzka and Alphonso Davies through injury, but the fact that they struggled so much without them was perhaps telling. If City were without the likes of Ederson, Rodri and Joao Cancelo, they would probably still be confident of beating most teams.

Even Liverpool looked far from their best during a 2-0 win against Inter Milan. Jurgen Klopp's men deserve credit for hanging in there and being clinical in front of goal, but the game could have been beyond them had Inter capitalised on their dominance and converted their chances.

Bad days happen, of course, and top teams shouldn't be written off entirely on the basis of one game. But what this week has shown is that City should not fear anyone in the Champions League.

Do you think that City are the favourites to win the Champions League? Follow our City Is Ours writer Alex Brotherton on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.

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