Man City need support…

Monday, 05/12/2011

by Caroline Oatway, Shoot’s Manchester City blogger

Another great victory at the weekend has kept Manchester City flying high at the top of the Premier League table. A rout from the Blues saw five different players get their names on the scoresheet and the 5-1 win over Norwich could be the perfect tonic ahead of a tough midweek must-win clash in the Champions League.

City have to beat Bayern Munich on Wednesday night and hope that Napoli slip up against Villarreal. It’s a tall order. Bayern are unbeaten in the tournament and Villarreal haven’t managed to put a single point on the board in Group A. It doesn’t look promising but we have to keep the faith until it is well and truly over.

There’s nothing we can do to affect the result between Villarreal and Napoli so let’s just focus on our task in hand and secure victory against Bayern.

Call me biased but I actually think we can win the game. The German outfit have already qualified for the knock-out stages so perhaps they may not be so desperate to field their strongest side.

Bayern are currently top of the Bundesliga by just a single point and face struggling Kaiserslautern next weekend. They will finish top of Group A in the Champions League, no matter what, so they have no need to over exert themselves in Wednesday’s game.

City on the other hand cannot afford to put out a weakened team. We simply have to win and we will need to pull out all the stops to do it.

Disappointingly, the enormity of City’s task has dampened the spirits of fans ahead of the game. For the first time in weeks, the club haven’t yet sold out their allocation which may well have a negative effect on the game.

A few years ago, the club were in a similar situation when we played Hamburg at home in the Europa League. That night, the stadium was packed to the rafters with flags, banners and inflatables and the atmosphere was electric.

Despite going behind in the game, City managed to come back and win 2-1. It wasn’t enough to put them through (Hamburg won 4-3 on aggregate) but there’s no aggregate on Wednesday – we just need a win in 90 minutes.

A twelfth man in the form of a full house of passionate fans could do wonders and let’s face it, we need all the help we can get. So come on Blues, get yourselves down to the game and cheer the lads on!

If we play to our strengths and particularly go out all-attacking, there is no reason why we cannot secure all three points. What happens in Villarreal is out of our control but stranger things have happened in football and the Spanish side won’t want to leave the competition without a point.

We have to do our bit and the fates will sort out the rest. We’ve got the squad – we just need the belief. Let’s go out and do what we have to do. It’s not over until the fat lady sings and all that!

* Check out the Sergio Aguero feature in the latest Shoot app by clicking here

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