KOMPANY BACKS CITY & UNITED

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany says that he believes that the club can overcome a 2-0 deficit on aggregate against Barcelona in the second leg of the Champions League at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. City were extremely poor in the first leg at the Etihad stadium, but they now face the prospect of finishing the season with only one trophy if they do not recover against Barcelona. This is after they were knocked out of the FA Cup during the weekend by Wigan. City have been struggling for form in recent weeks and it has also been the case with Barcelona.

The Catalan outfit have not only suffered three defeats in the last six league matches, but they have also surrendered their six-point lead over Real Madrid around the Christmas period to go four points below their arch rivals. Hence, Barcelona also come in with a similar situation to that of City, but Kompany feels that his team has enough firepower to cause Barcelona problems early on in the match. He says that scoring an early goal will be the key to City’s recovery. Despite scoring goals for fun earlier in the season, City’s strikers have not found the back of the net in almost 1000 minutes.

Edin Dzeko, who is likely to start, has not scored in more than 400 minutes of football.

“I’m looking at the strikers we have – Aguero, Negredo, Dzeko – and I will tell you one thing, I’m just really happy. I’m trying to focus on the fact that we have firepower at the front. If everything goes well we can hurt Barcelona. We attack and defend as a team. If we score, we have a chance. We’ve done it before. It’s a one off, yes – but football is made out of nights like this,” said Kompany.