Last summer, Manuel Akanji left Borussia Dortmund for Manchester City on a €17.5m deal.
The 27-year-old had gotten used to try and stop Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, which is something that had become a near impossible task over the past few years.
Now at Manchester City, he’s once again facing the German giants, this time in the Champions League. That was the subject of an interview he had with Bild this week.
Akanji was asked if he has any kind of special motivation to knock Bayern Munich out of the quarter-finals, and the centre-back didn’t hide how glad he would be in case he gets that achievement on Wednesday evening.
“Of course it has an effect that I played for Dortmund. It would mean a lot to me to beat my old rivals. But my focus is on progressing with Manchester City and trying to win that trophy,” Akanji told Bild.
The defender was also quizzed about the great performance Manchester City had in the first leg, and when asked about their special plan to beat Bayern Munich, he claims Pep Guardiola’s side had only been concentrated in doing their job.
“We defended well and took our chances. That’s exactly what we have to do in the second leg as well. In the Champions League everything can be decided in small details.”
“It was an incredibly tough and demanding game for us. We’re very happy to go into the second leg with this result, but we have to show exactly the same level on Wednesday, our best level. Because Bayern is a top opponent with so much quality…”
Manchester City beat Bayern Munich 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium last week, and now play the decisive game at the Allianz Arena tonight, where Akanji will certainly be prepared to celebrate it in big style in Germany should they manage to stop the Bundesliga side from pulling off a great comeback.
