Ruben Amorim talks about the quality of Sporting Lisbon and Manchester City

DBasia.news – Sporting Lisbon are underdogs when they meet Manchester City in the 16th of the 2021-2022 Champions League. The coach, Ruben Amorim even linked this to a fight between elementary school children and students.

Sporting will first host City in the first leg at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, Wednesday (16/2) at 03.00 WIB. This is the Portuguese representative’s best chance to pave the way for qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Sporting had no choice but to steal the win at home. It will ease their task at the second meeting.

The last meeting between the two teams was in 2012 in the Europa League.

However, its not an easy thing to do for Amorim to defeat City. The support of the fans will not help much as the quality difference between the two teams is quite far.

“Guardiola is the best coach in the world right now and Manchester City is the team that has developed the most technically and tactically. It’s like I was in elementary school and he was in college, because he’s the reference for all managers,” Amorim told UEFA’s official website.

“When we look at City, we realize that we cannot manipulate our team to cover all the spaces because they change. We will try to push ourselves into the game.”

“I believe we still have a chance to qualify and we have to believe in it. (They) the Sporting players surprised me and they have done some miracles, I believe this is possible,” he added.

Guardiola’s Response

Man City manager, Pep Guardiola does not want to be lulled by superior status. He thinks there are no easy matches in the Champions League.

I say every day that we are competing with ourselves. Every three days, we have done well over the last few years, and we will do it again in the next game,” stated Guardiola.

Sporting is a test of Manchester City’s eligibility to talk a lot in the Champions League. The Citizens are still trying to win their first trophy after losing in the final last season.