FC Copenhagen’s stand-in captain Viktor Claesson admits stopping Manchester City and the “killer” Erling Haaland is the hardest footballing activity he has ever confronted.
The Sweden worldwide and his colleagues had been unable to halt and even sluggish City on the Etihad Stadium final week, slumping to a 5-0 defeat of their first of two Champions League clashes.
The reverse Group G fixture takes place within the Danish capital on Tuesday and, though City may make modifications, with last-16 qualification not but finalised Claesson is just not anticipating the duty to get any simpler.
Haaland will definitely be relishing the prospect of scoring extra targets having already netted 20, together with a double in opposition to Copenhagen final time spherical, in simply 13 appearances for City this season.
“They are the best team in the world – the best I have met by far,” mentioned winger Claesson, who took over as skipper for final week’s recreation after team-mate Carlos Zeca suffered a season-ending knee damage.
“For me they are the Champions League favourites. They have been for the last couple of years but haven’t succeeded in the final part.
“Now they have a really good striker as well. Before they had good players with the touches, no mistakes, simple play, but now they also have the killer in the box. Whenever it comes into the box he just scores all the time.”
With only one level from their three video games whereas City have 9 and Borussia Dortmund six, Copenhagen are realistically out of competition for a spot within the subsequent spherical.
For them the problem is to attempt to edge out Sevilla to the comfort spot within the Europa League for ending third within the group.
“We know it would have been a bonus to get any points from the game (last week),” mentioned Claesson. “But we were not there and I hope we can learn from it. I hope we can bring a better performance on Tuesday.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk