CL Group C: Barcelona - Man. City - Monchengladbach - Celtic

[Dragonite]

Comments about the teams, predictions…

[BurningStorm]

Gladbach are more experienced now and at home, they can beat any team, they proved it against Bayern in Bundesliga last season and in CL against Sevilla (and almost Juve). 6:1 against Bern in playoffs was also a strong performance at home. In away games, they have some problems. Only one point in last season's group stage and two days ago, they lost in 1:3 in Freiburg.

I expect losses in Manchester and Barcelona. In Glasgow it's possible to win, but could be a coin toss. 4 points against Celtic should be enough for 3rd place. Will be interesting to see if Gladbach or Celtic can collect at least one point at home against the two giants.

1. Barcelona 15
2. ManCity 11
3. Gladbach 5
4. Celtic 2

[bermuda3eck]

Barca 15pts +
Man C. 10-15pts
Gladbach 4-9pts
Celtic 0-1pt

[Malko]

1) Barcelona 2) Manchester City

[og2002gr]

Barcelona: as always they begin as the favorites for the trophy. Their group isn't easy, but anything less than first place would be a major surprise.

Manchester City: coming frοm their best CL campaign ever but also form their worst League season too. They are not the newly-rich newbies, still they are not a giant yet. 3/3 qualifications and group winners against Juventus and Sevilla make them the undisputed favorite for 2nd place. Question is how close will they be to Barcelona?

Gladbach: after many surprises and play-offs eliminations, they entered Pot3, taking Celtic instead of EL winners Sevilla (like last season). They could have 50% chances in some groups but not in this one. I expect them to finish above Celtic easily, and if they play from the beginning like their last season's finish they may even cut points from the top2 teams.

Celtic: finally they didn't slip in play-offs and entered group stage. Last season they finished last in a much easier EL group. This group is a strong CL group and their qualification round struggle don't show they are much better. Anything more than 4th place or 3-4 points would surprise me.

1. Barcelona 80%
2. Manchester City 65%
3. Gladbach 40%
4. Celtic 15%

[Dragonite]

Barcelona signed a lot of players, and paid €122,75M for them.
The group stages won’t be a serious test to these squad changes – Barcelona not finishing top 2 here is unthinkable, the only team that can threaten them is Manchester City.

Manchester City spent even more than that, €168,6M.
Does that mean that they have a better team than Barcelona? No, Barcelona’s starting position was higher (even though Manchester City was a semifinalist last season while Barcelona was only a quarter finalist), and the extra €45M don’t change that.
The most interesting novelty about Manchester City isn’t any of its players; it’s the coach Josep Guardiola. He inherited a CL semifinalist from Pellegrini, will he be able to improve that?
And unlike Barcelona, he actually has to worry about advancing from the group stages first. In the pre-Pellegrini seasons, Manchester City couldn’t do it. Now that Pellegrini left, it can happen again. They already defeated Borussia Monchengladbach twice last season; they should be able to do it again this time.

Borussia Monchengladbach should be super confident, after smashing Young Boys in the CL playoffs.
Last season the teams that smashed Young Boys in the CL and EL qualifiers then couldn’t do much more than that, so… Borussia Monchengladbach shouldn’t be dazzled because of that.
Unlike Barcelona and Manchester City that spent €100M+ with money coming from Qatar or Saudi Arabia, Borussia Monchengladbach only spent €39M, with the money coming from the €45M that they got from Granit Xhaka’s sale.
They have a very good chance to finish at least third, behind the two “monsters”.

Celtic is back to the CL. They will play it for the ninth time, and they will face Barcelona for the fifth time, after 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2013.
They have a famous win against Barcelona in 2012, but they lost six of the other seven meetings.
Last season they couldn’t even win a single EL group stage match, and I doubt that this season they’ll be able to do it in this CL group. Even getting a single point may be too much for them.

Prediction
1. Barcelona
2. Manchester City
3. Borussia Monchengladbach
4. Celtic

[og2002gr]

Boring.
Everything as expected.
Teams will justify their pots with no last MD drama.

[bugylibicska]

After the draw I`ve thought that Gladbach night be able to give Man City a run for their money, but then lost 4:0 in Manchester and that woke me up to reality. Still, after City could only draw in Glasgow while Gladbach won there, I see an interesting game coming up in Germany. Assuming Barca won`t lose their 2nd leg vs. City, of course.

[Dragonite]

This group can get very interesting if Manchester City can’t defeat Barcelona and Borussia Monchengladbach defeats Celtic again.
In the following round Manchester City would travel to Germany behind Borussia Monchengladbach, and would be eliminated with a defeat in Germany.
The alleged super coach that was hired to raise the club’s level would return it to the Mancini’s era when they couldn’t even advance from the CL groups.

Can Borussia Monchengladbach actually do this, or are we expecting too much from them?

Last season they lost twice against Manchester City, and this season they lost again, 0-4!
Yet in indirect comparisons they seem better “sometimes”, with their two draws vs. Juventus (vs. MC two defeats), their short defeat against Barcelona (vs. MC huge defeat), and their win in Scotland (vs. MC draw).

I don’t see them doing this “indirectly” this time, if they don’t defeat Manchester City at home they will be third.

[Dragonite]

Prediction
1. Barcelona
2. Manchester City
3. Borussia Monchengladbach
4. Celtic

Predictable group – after five rounds there was nothing left to be decided.
Even the Youth League group ended exactly in the same order!

Barcelona was almost perfect; their only flaw was losing in England.

Manchester City, apart from that home win against Barcelona, hasn’t much more to be proud of.
They had their biggest ever CL defeat when they lost 0-4 in Spain, also their biggest ever CL win when they won 4-0 against Borussia Monchengladbach… and then they could only get two draws against Celtic and another draw in Germany (worse than last season when they defeated Borussia Monchengladbach twice).

So far they spent €168.6M (CL biggest spender?) to finish second in their CL group with only nine points, and with a “genius” in charge, while last season, with “ordinary” Pellegrini, they won their group with twelve points and then went all the way to the semis.
So far the “genius” and €168.6M only gave them a result 25% worse compared to last season… Will it get better at some point or it will only get worse?
Is this a curse that Josep Guardiola has, after inheriting a CL winning Bayern and not winning it again in the next three seasons?


Borussia Monchengladbach at some point seemed like it would make this group interesting, but then they couldn’t defeat Celtic at home, while Manchester City defeated Barcelona, so the Borussia Monchengladbach vs. Manchester City match in round five, that could have been something, became something completely different.
Their CL campaign was still good though, they reached the EL last 32 round for the third time in the last five seasons. In their previous two times that was as far as they went. Will this time be any different?

When was the last time that they went further than that? 1995/1996, over 20 years ago… in the Cup Winners Cup – and to get there they only had to defeat some Sileks from Macedonia.
Now to do it again their path will be much harder: Young Boys, Celtic and Fiorentina.


Celtic had its second 0-3-3 in a row.
Last season they had it in an EL group with Molde, Fenerbahçe and Ajax, while this season they had it in a CL group with Barcelona, Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach – this time it wasn’t as bad as last season.
Plus, Celtic eliminated Hapoel Beer-Sheva, which seemed an ordinary thing at first, but considering what they did before and after that, perhaps it’s not that ordinary, and rather something that Celtic should be proud of.

Anyway, the 0-3-3 in the EL can’t be the yardstick.
This was their worst ever CL campaign. For the first time ever they couldn’t win a single match, the 0-7 defeat in Spain was also their biggest ever defeat in the CL history, and they are also in their biggest ever streak without a win (nine matches, the current six plus the last three from 2013/2014).

They shouldn’t let their “eliminating Hapoel Beer-Sheva” or “not losing against Manchester City” trees prevail over the forest.