Rio Ferdinand mentions the only TWO sides Man City will want to ‘stay away from’ in the quarter-final draw
Rio Ferdinand, a former Manchester United star, thinks that there are only two teams that Manchester City will want to steer clear of in the upcoming Champions League round.
After a dominant performance and a 7-0 victory over RB Leipzig at the Etihad on Tuesday night, City progressed to the quarter-finals, winning the tie 8-1 on aggregate.
Led by manager Pep Guardiola, the team made significant strides toward their goal of winning the continent’s top prize, with Erling Haaland scoring five of their seven goals.
The last eight opponents of the Premier League team will be revealed on Friday, and the draw will include Chelsea, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Benfica, Real Madrid, Napoli and Inter Milan.
Ferdinand thinks that out of the teams in the draw, only two of them will pose a genuine threat.
“They [City] will be thinking, “stay away from Bayern, stay away from Napoli. Everybody else is game”,’ the former defender told BT Sport.
“They are that good a team. They have experience at this level now and they’ve got the players that can hurt any team on the planet.”
Owen Hargreaves, another pundit, agreed with Ferdinand’s assessment and specifically pointed out Napoli as the most underrated team in the draw.
Napoli is currently leading the Serie A standings with an 18-point lead over Inter after playing 26 games.
“If they [City] play like that they don’t need to worry about anybody else,” added former United midfielder Hargreaves.
“They don’t need to worry about Benfica or AC Milan or Inter.
“The most underrated side I would say is Napoli. When they get it right they’re a threat. They’d give City a game.
“They’re one of the best teams in Europe this season, one of the top scorers, they play beautiful football.
“If you’re not putting any respect on the name then you need to go and watch them because they’re the real deal. Seriously, they could win the Champions League.”
Rio Ferdinand mentions the only TWO sides Man City will want to ‘stay away from’ in the quarter-final draw
