HUNGARY FOR MORE?

When is a home game not a home game? When it is in Budapest, of course…

The history books may say this match was a home leg, however, it is anything but.

That said, we provide digital matchday programmes for all home games, hence this latest offering.

We go into our game with Borussia Monchengladbach with a 2-0 lead at the same stadium we played the first leg at.

There’s no advantage for either side, so Pep Guardiola will rightly feel the tie is still in the balance.

Our first leg victory means we have one foot in the next round, but there is most certainly a hard 90 minutes still to negate.

Monchengladbach would need to score at least two goals to have any chance of progressing, because City already have two ‘away’ goals from the first meeting.

And we come into the game having responded strongly to our loss in the Manchester derby.

Wins over Southampton and Fulham mean we need just 14 more points to win a third Premier League title in four years and if we can see off Borussia, Pep may well be able to have the luxury sending teams out for the latter stages of the competition fresh and rested, with the league almost wrapped up.

A few ifs and maybes, but it could all happen if we continue to play the way have since November, winning 23 of our last 24 matches.

And we have Everton in the FA Cup quarter-final at the weekend, so the big games are going to come thick and fast from now until the end of the season.

With that in mind, let’s crack on with this edition!

Jim Glennie from James shares his Dream XI and Kev Cummins digs in his archives to bring us a Kraftwerk special.

Plus we have Pep's manager notes, Buzzer's column and a focus on our opponents.

Enjoy!

The manager's pre-match thoughts...


Hello everyone, tonight this extraordinary season takes another new twist.

Instead of welcoming Marco Rose and his Borussia Monchengladbach staff to the Etihad Stadium, we have had to travel to Budapest for the conclusion of the contest.

Obviously, that is not ideal given we played on Saturday night in London, but it is what it is, and we have all had to change so much about the way we conduct our working lives over the past year.

It was pleasing to get the 3-0 win at Fulham against a team that had been improving rapidly and over the previous few weeks had been one of the best in terms of points gained.

We made a lot of changes to personnel and to our tactics and the result was a brilliant win for us which took us a step closer to our aim of winning the Premier League title.

Every player wants to be involved from the beginning of every match but that is not possible, but we were able to rotate six, seven players and everyone is fit. It is working well.

To win the Premier League and the other cup competitions we need everyone producing their best for the club and the best for the team whenever they are called upon. That is the way we can compete in all competitions until the end.

There is little time between now and the end of the season and the games will come very quickly once this last international break is over. We may be playing in three different competitions in the same week. They all have different challenges; everyone must be ready to overcome those.

Tonight, we start with a two-goal lead from the first leg against Borussia Monchengladbach, but we know we will still have to be sharp and focussed to make sure we progress into the quarter-final draw on Friday morning.

In the first game a few weeks ago, we played well, but we maybe were not clinical enough. In the Champions League there are no second chances.  It is a competition in which sides do not have much margin for error - if you have a 1 on 1 or a 3 v 2 situation, you must at least finish the action or make the keeper make a save and we did not always do that in the first leg. Hopefully tonight we will.

Enjoy the game everyone and stay safe.

Our Club Ambassador's column..

I missed the first trip to Budapest to play Borussia Monchengladbach because only restricted numbers could travel, but I’m lucky enough to be attending this time.

It’s going to be a difficult tie because although we have a 2-0 lead, one goal could change the whole dynamic of the match so we need to go out and finish the job off.

Pep won’t allow anyone to think it is going to be easy, but I doubt he’ll have to tell them that because that's not how this team works.

We just need to be professional – as we always are – and not take our foot off the pedal because we have to remember that they have beaten Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Red Bull Leipzig this season, as well as holding Real Madrid and Inter Milan to draws.

Of course, with the second leg being on neutral turf, there is no home advantage, but it was the same for Borussia in the first leg.

And it’s unique to have both legs in the same stadium!

We will be playing in a fantastic stadium, named after Ferenc Puskás – one of the greatest footballers who ever lived – so there’s a lot of history there.

I spent six weeks in Hungary back in 1980, filming for the move Escape to Victory.

That was back before the Iron Curtain came up and we were based in Budapest, so I have a lot of good memories there.

The Hungarian people are fantastic so I’m looking forward to going back and hopefully we can get the result we want and move into the last eight.

Then it’s off to Goodison Park at the weekend for the FA Cup quarter-final, so we’ll know more about our hopes of making this a very special season by Saturday evening.

Enjoy the game and as ever, take care

GLADBACH:
THE SEASON SO FAR

It has not been a spectacular season for Gladbach, who currently sit tenth in the Bundesliga, though it promised to be something special in the first half of the campaign.

The season began with a 3-0 loss away to Dortmund and was followed by a 1-1 draw with Union Berlin a week later.

Things started to improve with a 3-1 win away to FC Koln and then a 1-1 draw with Wolfsburg.

And a 3-2 win away to Mainz and a 1-0 home win over Red Bull Leipzig meant Marco Rose's side had lost just of their opening six matches.

And the Bundesliga side's Champions League form was excellent towards the end of October, achieving successive 2-2 draws against Inter Milan and Real Madrid – against whom they had led 2-0 with 87 minutes played - before thrashing Shakhtar Donetsk 6-0 in Ukraine.

They would effectively book a place in the Round of 16 by beating Shakhtar 4-0 in the return fixture, though their form up until Christmas dipped, somewhat.

Just one win in seven Bundesliga matches saw Monchengladbach slide down the table with one win, four draws and two losses - plus two group stage losses to Real Madrid and Inter meant sneaking into the last 16 via the head-to-head record against Shakhtar.

But the New Year brought fresh optimism, with a 2-1 away win at Arminia followed by an impressive 3-2 home win over Bayern Munich.

Gladbach then drew 2-2 with Stuttgart with back-to-back home wins over Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund and capped a superb month with a 1-1 draw away to Union Berlin.

But boss Marco Rose had attracted interest elsewhere and in early February, it was announced he would be taking over at Dortmund at the end of this season.

Whether as a direct result or not, Gladbach haven't won a Bundesliga game since, losing five of their last six, drawing the other and have also been eliminated from the DFB-Pokal cup competition as well.

Add in City's first leg win last month and you have a side struggling to find form with six defeats in a row and no wins in 10 - but capable of beating the best in Europe when on song.

CITY V GLADBACH:
our history

There have been seven meetings between City and Borussia Monchengladbach over the years.

The first was a UEFA Cup quarter-final at Maine Road in March 1979.

City had seen off the mighty AC Milan along the way to the last eight but drew an even tougher test out of the hat in Borussia Monchengladbach.

The Germans had players such as Bertie Vogts and European Footballer of the Year Allan Simonsen among their starting XI.

Typically, Malcolm Allison pulled a surprise by giving a debut to a teenager in the first leg, showing his faith in teenage defender Nicky Reid – and City did take a first-half lead through Mick Channon, but Borussia levelled after the break to take a 1-1 draw back home.

In the second leg, City only had a stunning Kaziu Deyna volley for consolation, with Borussia winning 3-1 on the night and 4-2 on aggregate.

They would go on to win the UEFA Cup that season, beating Red Star Belgrade over a two-legged final.

The teams wouldn’t meet again until 2015 in the Champions League group stage, with City coming from behind to win 2-1 in Germany – Martin Demichelis and a 90th-minute Sergio Aguero penalty settling the game.

In the return fixture, City again had to come from behind, having gone in 2-1 down at the break and scored three times in the last 11 minutes (Raheem Sterling (2) and Wilfried Bony) to win 4-2.

The teams were again paired in the same group the following season, with City coasting home 4-0 in the first meeting at the Etihad.

Sergio Aguero struck a hat-trick in that game and Kelechi Iheancho scored the other goal.

The return clash in Monchengladbach was a more even affair, with David Silva earning City a 1-1 draw.

The seventh and final meeting before Tuesday night’s game, was the Round of 16 first leg in Budapest that City won 2-0.

A goal in each half from Bernardo and Gabriel Jesus have put City in a strong position ahead of the second leg.

lars stindl

Position:
Attacking midfielder/forward

Squad number:
13

Age:
32

 

Bundesliga stats 2020/21:

 Games: 24

Goals: 10

Assists: 5

Shots: 44

On target:20

Off target: 24

Tackles won: 183

Aerial duels won: 33

Sprints: 265

Crosses: 7

 

Career stats:

Games: 472

Goals: 115

 

Clubs:
Karlsruher II, Karlsruher SC, Hannover 96,
Borrussia Monchengladbach

International caps: 11

International goals: 4

Action from the first Round of 16 clash...

FIRST LEG HIGHLIGHTS

FIRST LEG HIGHLIGHTS

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Sometimes, plans change. And that’s ok.

If you’d prefer to travel at a different time, you can change your flight for free. Simple.

Bassist of legendary Manchester band James, Jim Glennie is also a massive Blue.

James release their new album 'All The Colours Of You' - the 16th  studio album - which will released on 4June.

' All The Colours Of You' follows the release of LIVE In Extraordinary Times, a live recorded collection of their last studio album 'Living In Extraordinary Times', which peaked at #1 in the midweek chart last December. 

James, responsible for such classics as 'Sit Down' , 'She's A Star' and 'Born of Frustration', remain a massive part of the Manchester music scene and here, Jim selects his all-time City XI...

KEVIN CUMMINS:
KRAFTWERK - germany's manchester band

Manchester, quite rightly, has had a worldwide reputation for its music scene for more than 40 years, but without the influence of a band from Dusseldorf, it might never have got past first base. 

For Dusseldorf is the home of Kraftwerk and German Electronica - which was a huge influence on many British bands - and especially our very own Joy Division/New Order and Buzzcocks. 

The industrial landscape lends itself to that style too, with a lot of brutalist architecture just outside the old city centre. On my last visit for the Schalke UCL first leg, everywhere I looked I could see something that would have made a great album sleeve.

It was particularly exciting to find the outside door open into the courtyard of Kraftwerk's first recording studio - 'Kling Klang at Mintropstraße 16 - and to think back almost 50 years when 
Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider first started experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines, vocoders, and homemade 
musical instruments.

The traffic cone on the steps was the perfect finishing touch - and no, I didn’t put it there.