Group C: City against themselves

Four years in the Manchester City, four years without going through the quarterfinals. Mission of Pep Guardiola In English football, once it has conquered everything at the national level, all of them repeatedly, it remains to establish itself as one of the best teams in the Champions League. The outstanding debt is Europe. Team will not be lacking, because despite the departures of Sané or Silva, the Catalan coach has once again invested almost 100 million to reinforce his defense. Rúben Days Y Nathan Aké arrive to fill positions behind, while the responsibility for making a difference remains De Bruyne, Sterling or the Kun Aguero, as long as what doesn't make a difference are defensive mistakes. Players like Bernardo silva or Foden they will have to step up this season. The historical top of Manchester City in the Champions League are still the 2016 semifinals against him Real Madrid… when I trained Manuel Pellegrini.

The star: De Bruyne

The best player on the team, capable of leading his team from midfield. With goals and assists, his influence is indisputable. The Belgian equaled the record for assists in the same campaign of Henry with 20. Named best player of the Premier, this season he has established himself as one of the best players in the world. Despite the fact that his team fell in the quarterfinals in the past Champions, was awarded the award for best midfielder in the top European competition in the previous year for his excellent performance.

The coach: Pep Guardiola

Too many years without conquering the Champions, but no one can doubt a greatness as a coach that has made him win everything. Methodical and always avant-garde. Through the club that has passed, it has left its stamp. Although he has not stopped collecting titles, the Champions It is a competition that has been choking him since his departure from FC Barcelona. Last year, after eliminating Real Madrid, started as one of the favorites to raise the 'Orejona' in Lisbon. However, it was the Lyon, an a priori inferior team, who put an end to the dream of Pep and the City. This year, a new opportunity for the Catalan coach to make the English happy, silence the most critical and round off his record.

Guardiola you have different alternatives on which to build your team. In fact, it is never easy to guess who the starting XI may be before games because he rotates a lot and makes changes of players and positions permanently. One thing is clear. His teams want to be protagonists with the ball, to dominate, to subdue the rivals a lot in their own field, for which he needs specific players who give him that value. The doubt, as always, knowing how he responds in defense to contexts in which he is exposed so much.

It has not been a prosperous summer for him Port, at least for Sergio Conceiçao, which has seen two of its most important players robbed in the last days of the market: Danilo, a fundamental piece in the center of the field, went to PSG, Y Alex Telles, one of the best left back in the world, to Manchester United. Therefore, the Portuguese coach has the difficult task of restructuring a team that for another year will have to maintain a particular hand in hand with him. Benfica in your league and in turn leave a good image in the Champions, where you are the only representative of your country. The dragons came back from the pandemic in very bad shape. Only the worst level that the Benfica in the League NOS made him Port He will end up being a champion for playing less than his rival. If that's the level it shows in this Champions LeagueIt will be very difficult to go to the round of 16. Your luck? That he played a more than affordable group.

The star: Marega

The offensive benchmark of the team. Without Danilo Pereira neither Alex Telles, and with a Pepe already veteran, is the player of the Port most internationally recognized. The Franco-Malian forward is the star of the Portuguese team. He stands out for his power, his physique, his energy and his scoring nose. In 15 games in Champions with the Port He has scored 6 goals.

The coach: Sérgio Conceiçao

He already left very good feelings in his first steps as a technician in France and has taken a quality leap in the Port. Character, evolution and a lot of knowledge. The ideas he transmits from the bench differ from how he was as a footballer. The Portuguese coach, who was a skilled footballer with great technique, is committed to a pragmatic and conservative philosophy in his coaching notebook. The coach strengthens his defense and, through a direct style, seeks to bring the ball as quickly as possible to the rival field.

Despite the fact that season after season important players leave him, he continues to sign well the Port and that allows him to continue maintaining a good eleven with which to compete. Maybe Europe He's been a bit big lately, but he makes up for that with the extreme competitive nature of Sergio Conceiçao on the bench. This is how he transmits it to the team, which has gained a lot in personality since he arrived at the club. Pepe is the guardian back, keep fine players like him Tecatito Corona on the right and above it has the power of Marega.

He Olympique de Marseille will dispute the Champions for the first time in the last six years with a short staff that will suffer to face the maximum continental competition. He Marseilles had badly accustomed his fans not to contest the Champions League. Since the arrival of Franck McCourt In 2017, the Marseille team had not managed to qualify for the top continental competition until this season. He achieved it in an atypical year, marked by the premature end of Ligue 1 due to the coronavirus, but which served to get the most out of a squad that, due to individual quality, could not even have entered the European position.

The star: Payet

The midfielder assumed the leadership of the team after the injury of Thauvin and had a spectacular season. The sorting options of the Marseilles go through their boots. His exquisite technique makes him a diamond for the French club. In his best moment of confidence he takes out a variety of resources for a walk, from feints to heels, without forgetting his great hitting. He is one of those players with the ability to unbalance a match at any time.

The coach: André Villas-Boas

He has managed to straighten his career somewhat after a meteoric start and a subsequent slump. First in Russia and now in the Marseilles, you are seeing what it is capable of. He Marseilles It is a team well known for its tactical system. With a defined 4-3-3, he has built a team capable of pressing without any qualms, even in the rival area if necessary. In addition, he has managed to convey to his players that everyone has a role on the field at all times.

André-Villas Boas was the great architect of the success of OM. The Portuguese came to French football after several years in ostracism and managed to generate an ideal ecosystem to join pieces. Payet assumed leadership of the team in his personal best season; Kamara, called to be the heir of Varane in France, he became a great midfielder and Alvaro Gonzalez emerged as the leader in defense. Despite the shallow staff depth, the Velodrome is always a very difficult stadium to visit.

He Olympiacos It is one of those teams that historically, if it has had any opportunity to add something against teams better than him, it has been thanks to the heat of its stadium, the Piraeus, one of those “little hells” in which aggressiveness seems to be a little more allowed by the environment that surrounds the game. However, with the pandemic, that factor has completely disappeared and only the sporting aspect remains, in which the Greeks are technically below the rest of their rivals. The signings of Vinegar, Mist or M’Vila do not seem to be enough for a team in which its maximum offensive reference is still The Arabi. Miraculously, this will be the third season of Pedro Martins on the bench. And it's miraculous because in the Olympiacos the successes of a coach do not seem to be enough to stay in office, say it to Valverde or Míchel, for example. It still has a formula that surprises everyone in this Champions.

The star: El Arabi

Years go by and the ex of Pomegranate He remains one of the most talented players in the Greek league. Pure class in the area. The previous year he scored 20 goals with the Olympiacos in 34 games and this season in only 4 games he has already seen the door on 5 occasions. As of 2020, he still leads the table of the all-time top scorer in the Pomegranate in First division, with 44 goals.

The coach: Pedro Martins

Three seasons already in office and that already says a lot about the coach in a football with so little patience as is the Greek. He knows his limitations well and mitigates them well. In the previous course he reached the double, lifting the league and the cup. Furthermore, in Champions got third place in the group, with access to the Europa League, where with a daring football he managed to eliminate the Arsenal of Arteta. He Wolverhampton prevented him from facing the Seville in the quarterfinals. This year one of the coach's goals is to compete at a good level in Champions.

A Olympiacos very much in line with the one who played and went far in past seasons, without great fanfare but with very clear concepts and the necessary conditions to be a complicated opponent. For starters, defensive solidarity is not in dispute. It has been through defense that the results have arrived in recent times and this team is no exception. Great goalkeeper Jose Sa, for example. In addition, it seeks to be very decisive in attack and there the figure of The Arabi excels. It attacks little, but it is very effective.