Former star Manchester City’s only chance to win the Champions League is to avoid one team.

Joleon Lescott, a former defender for Manchester City, has stated that Pep Guardiola and his squad may win the Champions League if they do not face one team in the tournament.

With a strong 3-1 lead over FC Copenhagen going into Wednesday night’s second-leg of the last-16 match, City is poised to make it to yet another UEFA Champions League quarterfinal.

If both teams qualify, Manchester City and Arsenal, the rivals for the Premier League title, could play in the quarterfinals of the competition since this will be the last round of the competition that forbids teams from the same nation from playing against one another.

Joleon Lescott acknowledged this week in an exclusive interview with TNT Sports that, despite his “confidence” that Manchester City will win the UEFA Champions League again this year, they will need to avoid Premier League rivals Arsenal.

Lescott said, “I’m confident that (Manchester) City will win the UEFA Champions League—as long as they don’t play Arsenal.” “We’ll probably expect every predictable team to advance through the tie; Arsenal and Porto are comparable in the league,” the analyst said. “But, I believe Arsenal would understand and be a little less afraid of Man City.”

“With Real Madrid, even though they are the Champions League team, they’re not used to playing the way City makes you,” he went on.

.. Whoever you are, Real Madrid, PSG, or Bayern Munich, you will inevitably be pushed back. Are you used to that?

Are you accustomed to playing possession-based play for 70% of the game instead of defense? Over the course of two legs, I believe Arsenal will have a greater opportunity than other clubs because I believe they have a better knowledge of that. In the end, you simply cannot tell.

Lescott said he would be less anxious while facing Real Madrid, delving more into the tactical aspects of a possible matchup with Arsenal and explaining why a matchup with Mikel Arteta’s team over two legs in Europe could be more challenging.

The 41-year-old said, “I don’t think Arsenal are the best fitted to beat everyone else.”

“I believe Arsenal would be City’s worst opponent over a two-leg match.” When playing Arsenal, I would be more anxious than when playing Real Madrid.

“Now that (Manchester City) have overcome the obstacle of winning it,” he said to TNT Sports. When Vinicius Jr. realized he wouldn’t be running Kyle Walker in the home leg of the previous season, you could tell it deflated the entire team. That is not the case.

“It became apparent that today would be somewhat demanding. Even though Carlo Ancelotti, the players, and the club are all very good, they are not accustomed to the style of play that City demands of them.

“You need to exercise extreme self-control and give credit where credit is due.”

Pep and the club believe that beating Man City will require their best effort, and even then they might not prevail. You stand a very high chance of making teams perform to the best of their abilities if that is what it takes to advance.

But without the contributions of two of their most important wide forwards, Manchester City will have to make it to the final eight of Europe’s top club competition. Jack Grealish is still out of this week’s European match due to injury.

This week, Jeremy Doku was also called into question after missing Tuesday’s first-team practice in front of the media at the City Football Academy. Pep Guardiola did not provide an update before the practice in his news conference prior to the game.