It doesn´t get more difficult than this match. When teams come back from 15 days of International football, usually the first match is a problematic one; it´s the same for every team, though it´s less problematic for teams who are together (players, managers, philosophies, etc) for longer. And of course, International Break did City a few favors in relation to us:
- Torres scored a hat-trick for Spain, which is big for any player.
- Reguilón played when Spain lost; was rested when Spain beat Germany 6-0.
- Sterling is obviously playing tomorrow, though he was rested from this full International Break - unlike Kane and Dier (and Winks, who by the way came back to the club with a "problem").
- Kane didn´t score a single goal for England, but played 170 minutes in total - and it´s also important to consider the intensity put in training; Jose clearly protects him, while I´m not sure Southgate does the same.
- Foden scored twice for England.
- Even Rúben Dias scored twice for Portugal.
- Jesus travelled to South America, just like Lo Celso. But Aguero was rested and trained well for a full week. This is huge. With Aguero, they are a much more dangerous team.
- Doherty got Covid-19, which leaves us with Aurier, who went to Madagascar - as far as it gets - to play for his National Team.
- Sonny probably had two or three terrible days thinking about Covid. Players are normally under a lot of stress, especially when they are playing so many games; the last thing Sonny needed was to have his health seriously put at risk to play a couple of friendlies.
I´ve seen people saying we could beat them 5-0, I´ve seen people mentioning this game as a chance to increase the team´s confidence before other important matches - Chelsea, Woolwich, Liverpool. I completely disagree with all of that. City have the best team/squad in the competition and Pep just extended his contract with them - this will surely do the team´s spirit a lot of good, one way or another. I think they are still favorites to win the title and I´d take a 0.5 vs 0 win tomorrow. Let´s go with everything.
COYS