City to face Porto, Olympiakos and Marseille in Champions League

By Ric Turner, Fri 02 October 2020 11:23


City to face Porto, Olympiakos and Marseille in Champions LeagueBlues given favourable draw in Group C

City will face Porto, Olympiakos and Marseille in this season's UEFA Champions League, following Thursday's draw in Lyon.

The Blues were placed in Group C, in what appears, on paper at least, to be a favourable draw for Pep Guardiola's side.

Director of Football Txiki Begiristain said that the squad now need to start believing that they can win the Champions League.

“We are happy with the draw but we always know the difficulty of all the teams that we play against," he said.

"The Champions League, as you know, is becoming more and more difficult every year, you can see surprises already with some clubs out of the first group. Our mentality is to get as far as we can but I have to say that we are happy, but in pool four, we got one of the toughest opponents.”

“We have to take out our willingness of winning or the need to win this competition because maybe it is not helping," he explained.

"We have to show calmness and respect to this competition but we have to really believe that we can win. Again, the competition is growing and getting better and better and this makes it difficult to think that everyone has to win.

"Of course, we want to fight for it and maybe that experience, being calm and using that trust and belief, and know that one day we will win."

Exact dates and kick-off times are yet to be confirmed but the initial schedule is as follows:

Matchday 1: 20/21 October
Matchday 2: 27/28 October
Matchday 3: 3/4 November
Matchday 4: 24/25 November
Matchday 5: 1/2 December
Matchday 6: 8/9 December