Manchester City are halfway through arguably the most difficult season of Pep Guardiola’s reign at the Etihad, with Sunday’s 5-1 loss at Arsenal leaving them fifth in the Premier League.
An autumn collapse looks to have put paid to their domestic title hopes, and they nearly suffered a shock elimination from the Champions League too, only to come from behind to beat Club Brugge at the end of January.
Now they host Real Madrid on Tuesday in the first leg of the play-off round, needing to defeat the reigning European champions to even make it to the last 16.
Former star still has hope
Real Madrid beat Manchester City in the quarter-finals of last season’s Champions League, but Guardiola’s side were European kings themselves in 2023, and former Blues winger Shaun Wright-Phillips thinks they’re still well capable of making progress this time around.
If they do that, he isn’t ruling out a charge to the trophy, given that City are traditionally at their strongest in the final months of a season.
“Anything’s possible, that’s the best thing about football,” Wright-Phillips told FFT.
“If you look at City over the last four years of being in the Champions League, they’ve never really had an easy route to the Champions League final and they’ve seemed to find a way.
“Of course this year is slightly different in terms of where their performances have been at, and the mistakes they’ve been making that goals have come from. But there’s always a way, you never know.
“If they do beat Real Madrid, which I think they possibly could do, that might kick-start them to go on one of those runs again.
“It will be an interesting game because Real Madrid are without key players, especially in the back line. City also haven’t got Rodri and you don’t know which defenders are going to be fit.
“But if they can take the chances that they will most probably make, it will be a problem for Real Madrid.”
Wright-Phillips on De Bruyne's future
Kevin De Bruyne has been a key man for Manchester City ever since his arrival at the Etihad in 2015, but his contract is currently due to expire at the end of this season.
At 33, he’s had a difficult campaign that was interrupted by injury early on, and he was only a substitute for the defeat at Arsenal.
“Me personally, I would keep him and I think the club want to keep him, there are probably just a few minor details that they want to iron out,” Wright-Phillips said, speaking in association with BetVictor.
“I don’t think a club like Man City would want to part ways not only with the person on the pitch but the person away from the pitch, who’s probably massive for the dressing room.
“I really hope he does stay, because with the other players they’ve brought in like Omar Marmoush, they’re now in a position where they can give Kevin the rest that he needs, so that when he does play, he’s playing at the level everybody wants to see.
“It’s been a tricky season for him in general with the injury, and it’s been the same for quite a few players, not a lot of them have had a good run of games back to back – they’ve been protected because of the amount of injuries they’ve had.
“As a player sometimes you need those back to back games to get to that level of performance and peak fitness, performing at a high intensity.”
