Owen Hargreaves believes Bayern Munich is “the only team that can stop Manchester City”

Former Manchester United and England midfielder Owen Hargreaves says Bayern Munich is the only team competent enough to prevent Manchester City from achieving UEFA Champions League glory.

Sitting at the top of the Premier League table with an insurmountable 14-point lead, this year’s City are widely considered as one of the best sides manager Pep Guardiola has assembled in his tenure, with FiveThirtyEight giving them a 37% chance of winning UCL final (based on yesterday’s update). Hargreaves, who has played Bayern and both Manchester clubs, is of the view that Guardiola’s Sky Blues doesn’t have a prominent weakness, this season.

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“This is the City team that has best chance of winning Champions League,” Hargreaves admitted in pre-match talk on BT Sport (as captured by Daily Mail), before the Cityzens defeated Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1.

City, who are yet to concede a goal in this season’s tournament, comfortably strolled past Monchengladbach with a 4-0 aggregate to seal a quarter-final berth. Although nowhere near Bayern’s offensive output, the Blues have looked impervious at the back with center-backs John Stones and Ruben Dias at the helm.

“Defence sorted; I don’t think this team has a weakness anymore,” Hargreaves remarked. “This is City’s best chance, they have lost previous shootouts [Monaco, Liverpool, Spurs], now they are playing at their tempo, don’t concede and score a tonne of goals.”

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The Bavarians, however, have no reason to fear the runaway EPL leaders. After a few hiccups in the first half of the season, coach Hansi Flick’s team has seen a striking development on the defensive front. The Robert Lewandowski-led attack, of course, needs no introduction.

“The only team I see that can stop them, is Bayern Munich. That’s probably the only one I see,” the former defensive midfielder claimed, before adding that City are beatable on an off-day. “But if they (Manchester City) have a bad day then as we saw with United, they can be beaten.”