Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane has heaped criticism on Manchester City for their lacklustre performance in a 1-1 Champions League draw with Celtic on Tuesday and claims that Pep Guardiola’s side will struggle in the knockout stages of the competition.
Speaking on ITV’s Champions League highlights show, Keane claimed that City were ‘disrespectful’ towards their opposition by weakening the team so significantly and could have paid the price for their actions.
Obviously they knew they were already through, but they showed a lot of disrespect to Celtic and Celtic were the slightly better team and could have gone on to win.
City had already qualified for the knockout stages in second place after a disappointing draw with Borussia Monchengladbach on matchday four left them four points adrift of group leaders Barcelona but three ahead of Monchengladbach, who they had a positive head-to-head record against.
As a result, Guardiola made nine changes from the side that lost to Chelsea last weekend and offered opportunities to the likes of Pablo Maffeo and Tosin Adarabioyo.
Also asked about whether or not City would struggle to compete with Europe’s elite in the knockout phase of the competition, Keane stated that their recent defensive woes could hinder their progress.
I think so. Particularly defensively.
The draw for the Round of 16 of the Champions League will take place on Monday and City could face any of: Napoli, Monaco, Atletico Madrid, Juventus or Borussia Dortmund.
