Champions League semi-finals beckoning

Les Chapman.

Manchester City’s ex-Latics roving reporter writes every week for Chron Sport

A FANTASTIC 2-2 draw in France perfectly set up Manchester City for tonight’s Champions League quarter-final second-leg against Paris St Germain at the Etihad Stadium.

The two away goals will have given the team a major boost, and I’m sure all the players will be massively up for the return leg. The first leg highlighted again that City really are capable of competing with the best teams in Europe.

They still miss Vincent Kompany at the back of course, but overall I feel they’ve got the measure of PSG – despite all their world-class players – so I’m confident City will reach the last four.

The weekend’s Premier League results went quite well for City. The win against West Brom and United then losing means there’s a nice little buffer between the fourth and fifth spots in the table now.

It was a crucial goal Samir Nasri scored late on against the Baggies. It’s been great to see him back in action earlier than originally scheduled, but I’m not surprised he’s back firing on all cyliders so soon.

City have a really intense medical team at their disposal as you can probably imagine, and the facilities are second to none. The medics worked wonders with Kevin de Bruyne too, and he’s back flying again.

It’s looking increasingly likely that Leicester are going to win the Premier League title after Jamie Vardy grabbed those two great goals at Sunderland.

Looking ahead to England’s European Championship campaign in France this summer, I was asked would I prefer to start with Vardy or Harry Kane? I’d say play them both! Can you imagine the fear those two would strike into opposition defences, given the way they’re both playing at the moment?