MUNICH: While Manchester City are preparing to finish off Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday after beating the German champions 3-0 in the first leg, Thomas Tuchel’s men are keeping their feet behind the line and focusing on creating a sensational turnaround.

There has been so much going around them — internal turmoil in the team, rumors of a decaying squad, the noisy change of coaches, and the sportive malaise — but Bayern and coach Tuchel are staking their faint hopes on home advantage in Wednesday’s second leg and a promise to finally turn their team’s form around.

The Bavarians have struggled in the past weeks since Tuchel replaced Julian Nagelsmann in late March, having been eliminated in the German Cup last eight by Freiburg before the loss at City in the first leg last week.

They then slumped to a 1-1 home draw with Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga on Saturday to pile more pressure on the Bavarians, who also banned forward Sadio Mane for a game after he hit team mate Leroy Sane after the game in Manchester.

Tuchel said any talk of a 4-0 or 5-0 win against City, a team that is unbeaten in their last 14 matches in all competitions, was fanciful.

“We cannot talk about a miracle and expect it to just come by talking about it. We have to have a realistic level,” Tuchel told a news conference on Tuesday. “To talk about 4-0 or 5-0 is not appropriate and given our performance on Saturday I don’t know if everyone believes it 100 percent.

“What we want to do is win the first half. That is the first goal. Then anything can happen, if we also get that bit of luck which we did not have in the first game. It is a huge mountain to climb. We want to believe but don’t want to be dreamers.”

Bayern are struggling for goals, having struck only three times in their last four matches in all competitions, and with a 3-0 deficit to make up they need to step up and deliver on Wednesday. They will have forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting back from injury to boost their options in attack with the Cameroon international their top scorer across all competitions this season.

“We are responsible to do everything to deliver a top performance because otherwise nothing is possible,” Tuchel said. “We will take it step by step, half by half, our first step is to win the first half.

“We are still in this competition,” Tuchel said when asked about possibly missing out on more silverware this season should they be knocked out. “We can talk about it tomorrow evening.”

INZAGHI WANTS INTER TO FORGET DOMESTIC CRISIS

In Wednesday’s other tie, Inter Milan stand on the verge of making the semi-finals for the first time since last being crowed European champions 13 years ago, but all is not well ahead of the visit of Benfica.

Last week’s superb 2-0 win in Lisbon gives Inter a great chance of setting up a blockbuster all-Italian last four tie with either Napoli or local rivals AC Milan if they don’t collapse at the San Siro.

But their Serie A form has nosedived with coach Simone Inzaghi saying he had no qualms being a lightning rod for criticism as long as his players are protected ahead of a Champions League quarter-final that could define their season.

Inter have not won in their last five league games, suffering four defeats to fall out of the top four and sit two points behind fourth-placed Milan, leading to reports Inzaghi could be sacked.

However, they have done well in the Champions League, advancing from the group stage at the expense of LaLiga leaders Barcelona before eliminating Porto in the last 16.

“Before Barcelona, as before Porto, it [the criticism] was the same, personally I am used to it. Better they criticise me than the players,” Inzaghi told reporters on Tuesday. “Criticism helps us to work more and more.

“In the league we have made insufficient progress. Like other teams we had problems. We are getting bad results but things aren’t bad in terms of performances, we are still creating chances. The defeats are already in the past, we need to focus on tomorrow night and giving our fans an important night that would allow us to finish among the top four in Europe and that would be an important milestone.”

Benfica are also on a poor run of form having lost their last three matches in all competitions, but Inzaghi is still wary of the Portuguese league leaders.

“We know we have an advantage but it will be a game to be played in the best possible way, against an opponent who is in a downturn in results but not in their game,” Inzaghi said. “Benfica run a lot and cover the field well. We should be good and make them less dangerous because they are a team that creates a lot.”

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2023