Rio Ferdinand believes that only two sides can stop Manchester City from winning their first Champions League crown.
Pep Guardiola ’s side eased into the quarter-finals for the sixth consecutive season with a thumping victory over German side RB Leipzig. Erling Haaland racked up an incredible five-goal haul with Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan both also getting on the scoresheet in a 7-0 thrashing.
Numerous pundits were left waxing lyrical about City after their display, with Manchester United icon Ferdinand believing that only a couple of clubs can halt their charge towards a debut European crown. Speaking to BT Sport, the former defender said: “They [City] will be thinking, ‘stay away from Bayern, stay away from Napoli’. Everybody else is game.
“They are that good a team. They have experience at this level now and they’ve got the players that can hurt any team on the planet.”
Owen Hargreaves agreed with that assessment and believes that City may only be fearing current Serie A leaders Napoli ahead of the draw for the quarter-finals.
“If they [City] play like that they don’t need to worry about anybody else,” the former Bayern Munich star said. “They don’t need to worry about Benfica or AC Milan or Inter.
"The most underrated side I would say is Napoli. When they get it right they’re a threat. They’d give City a game.
“They’re one of the best teams in Europe this season, one of the top scorers, they play beautiful football. If you’re not putting any respect on the name then you need to go and watch them because they’re the real deal. Seriously, they could win the Champions League.”
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Napoli have enjoyed a stunning season so far under Luciano Spalletti. The Partenopei are 18 points clear at the top of the Serie A standings after losing just two games in the league so far this term.
They are clear favourites to claim the title come the end of the season in what would be their first Serie A title success since 1990 and the time of Diego Maradona - they are set to face Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League.
Whilst City have been warned that they might want to avoid bumping into the Italian side, Ruben Dias was asked by Thierry Henry if he had a preference for the next round - potentially former club Benfica.
The Portuguese however suggested that he is keen to take on anyone.
Speaking with CBS Sports, he said: "Let’s see. Honestly, I don't like to think about it. Either if it's Benfica or whoever, I like to get away from it because there are so many games, so many competitions.
“I really try to keep my focus now on Burnley because it’s the next one, it’s the FA Cup, it’s another final and you need to be there. Obviously you can think this game will be easier, this game will be a bit more difficult but in the end I think from now forward, every game will be difficult.
“And I’ve been watching a lot for Benfica this season and they’re a very good team so there will be no easy games.”
