Basel vs Manchester City - Hosts out to claim second Manchester scalp

Manchester City will hope to take another huge step towards the quadruple when they face FC Basel in the last-16 of the Champions League. Into the next round of the FA Cup, 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League and ahead of their first final of the season in the Carabao Cup later this month, attention turns back to Europe. 

City, though, can’t simply turn up and expect FC Basel to roll out the red carpet for Pep Guardiola’s side. The Swiss outfit picked up 12 points in the group stages, even though few gave them a chance of progressing ahead of CSKA Moscow and Benfica. 

Their home form has been a tad iffy of late, but their recent run of four wins from the last six games in front of their own fans includes victory against Manchester United – how they’d love to claim another Manchester scalp this week! The form of Dimitri Oberlin undoubtedly heightens hopes of an upset in midweek. 

The young Swiss forward has attracted plenty of interest from across the continent for a series of mature displays in Europe’s elite club competition, with his showing in a 5-0 win over Benfica in September a stand out display. He’ll undoubtedly be the key man for Basel, who’ll look to maximise his speed and finishing capability to put City to the sword in midweek. 

City have faltered on their travels of late too. While they won 14 of their opening 15 away games, they’ve failed to win three of their last five competitive matches away from the Etihad Stadium, with the two victories coming at Championship pair Bristol City and Cardiff. What’s more, FC Basel have lost only two of their last seven home European meetings with English opposition and while on paper, City should win, in reality, their Swiss counterparts are a tough nut to crack at St. Jakob-Park. 

Indeed, the City defence could be in for a long 90 minutes if Oberlin plays to his full potential and reaches the standards shown throughout the group stages and the starting centre-backs – likely to be John Stones and Vincent Kompany – need to keep their wits about them in order to keep the 20-year-old at bay. 

City could be made to rue the chance of an away victory if Oberlin is granted the chance to run riot on home turf this evening. If his performances in the Champions League so far are anything to go buy, the youngster has the means to punish the Premier League leaders to cause an early upset in the last-16 stage.