Manchester City are without captain Vincent Kompany for Sunday’s derby against Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League. A top-four finish to clinch a Champions League spot is now the target for both teams in the Premier League, and that’s just not good enough.
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KYLE MARTINO: “Both Manchester clubs are now far from the great heights expected of them, but make no mistake, this is still the Manchester Derby”.
We have a game in hand but it wouldn’t be right to just think about the title.
“Against Kyiv, you can say the hard work was done in the first leg, but there is still responsibility on the players to go and perform and when Man City are in that mood, I wouldn’t go and watch them play in my back garden”.
There was little to excite in the boring 0-0 draw at the Etihad Stadium that saw them through but, after winning 3-1 in Ukraine last month, City had little need to press and they completed a professional job.
City defeated Dynamo Kiev over two legs to reach the last eight of Europe’s elite competition for the first time.
And with Vincent Kompany suffering another calf injury in the last 16 game with Kiev on Tuesday, he looks set to miss a large portion of the season-a significant blow for City who rely on his leadership and defensive quality.
“It’s similar to the injury Kolarov had one month ago”, he said.
Sergio Aguero admits that Manchester City are anxious about missing out on securing a place in next season’s Champions League.
His immediate priority is now Sunday’s game against United, and Aguero has noted with interest how the status of the two clubs has changed in his time in the city.
“I will have to think about whether we want to approach the game with an attack-minded approach or more defensively”.
Despite their formidable recent record, Barcelona board member Javier Bordas told uefa.com: “I don’t think there was a tougher opponent”.
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In the relegation fight, Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez will experience his first north-east derby when his team host Sunderland on Sunday. “We are thinking about winning and nothing else”.
