Manchester City

Nasri reckons draw as favorable thing for MC to reach Final

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Samir Nasri reckons if Manchester City gets a little bit of a favored draw, they would be able to clear the knockout stages and reach the final of the Champions League.

Nasri was one of the players who shook the net the other night for the Sky Blues playing against the Italian club Roma.

It was an away game and the odds were not in City’s favor. A loss would have taken them out of the competition, but, the spirit that they showed was appreciable.

According to Nasri, from the position which his team was in with two games to go, it was an absolute miracle for them to move ahead to the knockouts in Europe.

Speaking before flying back to Manchester, Nasri said, “It was nothing short of miracle. The problems that we have countered this season, the injuries and everything, we have done a fabulous job to be able to get there and I believe if we fire on all cylinders in the knockouts and the draw is in our favour a little bit, we can go right to the end.”

“If the ability is taken into account, I don’t think there are too many clubs around the world that have a better team than us. I might be sounding biased at the moment I know that, but, we have got a wonderful squad really. All we need is to play to our potential.”

Now that City has made the knockouts, there are much more expectations with them. When asked if it is going to add to the pressure on the players, the Frenchman said, “Not particularly, the pressure is everywhere. It’s not that there is any less pressure when we play in the Premier league. The fans always expect more and more from us.”

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Manchester City

Manchester City reject Atletico bid for Negredo

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Premier League champions Manchester City have reportedly rejected a € 15 million bid for Spanish striker Alvaro Negredo from Spanish champions Atletico Madrid.

The offer, according to City, does not match their valuation of the striker whom they signed just last season from Sevilla for almost £ 20 million.

The capital side is looking at life beyond David Villa, who has already signed for the new Major League Soccer side New York City FC, which is owned jointly by City and the New York Yankees as well as Diego Costa who is almost certain to make the move to the Premier League with Chelsea.

They have earmarked the former Real Madrid hit man as their number one striker priority and are expected to return with an improved bid for the player who was a massive hit in his first season in English football before trailing off towards the end of last season.

It has been reported that the Spanish international is not in the best of terms with Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini who only sees him as a third choice striker behind Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko, thereby limiting his first team opportunities.

City are reportedly holding out for a fee in the region of € 30 million but it would be interesting to see if Atletico make such an offer despite making a huge profit from the potential sale of Diego Costa.

Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone is a huge fan of powerful striker and pushed the club to make a bid for him last season as well but Negredo snubbed them in favor of Manchester City. However, with Atletico in red hot form and expected to improve next time around as well, Negredo might just be interested in making the move to Madrid this time around though.

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