Manchester City are statistically the joint best attacking team in the Premier League, but their European form tells a very different story.
Manchester City got off to a good enough start in the Champions League, finishing just inside the top eight of the league phase.
This put Pep Guardiola and his team straight through to the last 16 stage of the competition, saving them from having to fulfil two additional play-off fixtures.
Following Tuesday night, there is a 50 per cent chance Man City will face Bodo/Glimt in the next round, a team who already defeated them earlier in the tournament.
City only scored once when the two teams previously met and this is not the only time scoring goals has been a problem for the 2023 champions.
Manchester City are the lowest scoring Premier League team in the Champions League
Newcastle United recently became the top scoring team in the Champions League with 26 goals. In fairness, Eddie Howe’s men have played two more games than Man City, but they had already found the net more times even when both sides had played an equal number of fixtures.
Arsenal are the fourth highest scoring team with 23 goals and Liverpool are ninth, having netted three fewer than the Premier League leaders.
Tottenham and Chelsea are joint 12th with 17 goals scored and then there is Man City way down in 19th, with 15 goals to their name.
Three of City’s goals have been headers and one was a penalty kick, while 12 have been scored from inside the box.
Man City need to be more clinical in Europe
Not taking enough shots is clearly not Man City’s problem, because they have only fired four fewer efforts than Arsenal. Also, both Chelsea and Spurs sit lower in the shots taken table.
Clearly City need to create more clear-cut chances and cause more of a threat with the shots they are taking.
It is not yet known whether the Sky Blues will end up facing Bodo/Glimt, Real Madrid or even Benfica in the next round. Whatever the case, Erling Haaland and his partners in crime will need to be ready to replicate their Premier League performances on Europe’s biggest stage.
