Thomas Tuchel Adds New Dimension to Manchester City vs Bayern Munich UCL Blockbuster

The reward for Manchester City's 7-0 and 8-1 aggregate thrashing of RB Leipzig in the Champions League was a quarter final pairing with Bayern Munich. The six-time European champions have been in red-hot form in Europe this season. They have not drawn a single game in eight matches so far even after facing teams like Inter Milan, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.

The Bavarians brushed aside PSG 3-0 on aggregate beating the French giants home and away to rump into the quarter-finals. They are currently one of the favorites to lift the trophy at Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium come June.

But at Blockbuster meeting against Manchester City will determine if the German side can proceed in the tournament. Just like at the Allianz Arena, the desire to win the competition is as strong if not stronger at the Etihad Stadium. With City falling short in the competition despite dominating the English landscape, it promises to be a fight to finish when the two sides square up in April.

A new dimension has been added to the fixture with Bayern's appointment of former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel. The 49-year-old famously denied Manchester City a chance at lifting the trophy in 2021 when he led Chelsea to a 1-0 victory at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto.

The rash sacking of Julian Nagelsmann suggests the club hierarchy are doing everything possible to get one over Man City in the Champions League. Who better to do the job than a man who has been there and done that?

Pep Guardiola came back from the shock defeat to beat Tuchel's Chelsea back -to-back in their subsequent matches. The German was later let go by the London side. But in interesting turn of events, he has now resurfaced with an even stronger team that has the personnel and pedigree required to beat any opponents in the competition.

Manchester City on their own part as hard as they come to Bayern Munich will have to be at their very best and maybe need a bit of help from the home crowd in the return leg to get past the Blues.

It's likely that Tuchel would have mixed feelings coming into the encounter. Fearful that he is coming up against the arguably the best manager there is in world football today. Yet confident he has had the better of him before and can repeat the trick.

For Pep Guardiola and his players, facing Tuchel again who denied them a chance at glory just two years back will be a good opportunity to exact revenge.

Yet, it must be noted that although FC Hollywood has had some hiccups in the Bundesliga this season, which no doubt contributed to Nigglesman's sacking, they are capable of beating any team on their day. Hence, City have their work cut out for them to secure passage to the next round.

They are not just going up against a strong team that is currently in form on the continent, but against their history and pedigree which count for much in the competition. These may be the most difficult UCL games the team will play in the last several years.