Manchester City have been backed to finally win their maiden Champions League title by Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher.
City kicked off their European campaign in style with a commanding 4-0 win over Sevilla on Tuesday night. Erling Haaland continued his fantastic start to the campaign by scoring twice to take his tally to 12 goals in eight games for City altogether, while Phil Foden and Ruben Dias also found the back of the net.
Pep Guardiola’s side have dominated the Premier League and domestic cup competitions in recent years but have still never won the Champions League. City were beaten finalists in 2021 and fell in the semi-finals last season, but Henry, who won the competition with Barcelona, and Carragher, who lifted the trophy with Liverpool, believe this year will be different.
“I’m going to have to echo what Jamie said about Man City – I think it’s about time they win it,” Henry said on CBS Sport’s coverage on Tuesday. “And again, I’m going to talk about Pep: I want him to validate what he’s doing at Man City. I am repeating myself every year.
“But having Haaland, for me, makes it even more pressure on them to perform. After that – Jamie said it – you can talk about a lot of teams. The usual suspects will be there, but I want to see this year – I can see the Italian league growing with players going there, the teams are getting better, but can the teams get better in the Champions League?”
Henry also laughed off Clint Dempsey’s pick for the trophy this year. “I’ll pick a dark horse. I’m not biased at all but I think maybe Tottenham,” the former USA international and Tottenham midfielder said. “I think they’ll get it done. [Antonio] Conte is a winner. Maybe not necessarily having a great record in the Champions League, but I think it’s them. They’re looking like they’ve gone from strength to strength, they’ve done well in the transfer window.”
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Dempsey’s Spurs shout goes against the grain of the vast majority of pundits, who are struggling to look past City following the £51million addition of Haaland this summer. The 22-year-old Norwegian has 25 goals in just 20 Champions League matches and had Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves singing his praises on BT Sport.
“I think Haaland going there, everyone, all of us, I’m sure Pep even [Jurgen] Klopp and [Thomas] Tuchel, that’s the missing piece of the puzzle,” Hargreaves said.
“It’s worked this fast, this quickly. They’ve had more possession in the games which means more touches for De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva. They look a threat. They’re scoring lethal goals and like Rio said in one off games like a Champions League finals, you need someone to sniff a goal and you can guarantee he’s going to do that.”
