Manchester City are heading into a must-win Champions League game where Pep Guardiola has called on the fans to help
MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 03: Fans of Galatasaray celebrate after winning the UEFA Champions League Group A soccer match between Manchester United and Galatasaray at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, United Kingdom, on October 3, 2023. (Photo by Tolga Ovali/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Galatasaray fans celebrate at Old Trafford in 2023
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"We need our fans." So said Pep Guardiola on Saturday after the Wolves game, and he had said similar in his previous three press conferences. At no point had he been asked, but he had felt the need to say it anyway.
That isn't because he has felt a drop-off in the atmosphere or he wants to engage the Emptihad banter merchants, but because he has seen how tired his players are and knows that they are going to need every bit of help they can get if they are to achieve the top-eight finish that they desperately want in the Champions League to avoid two extra games and the pressure of a play-off next month.
The problem for City is that there are probably more obstacles to creating the required atmosphere than they have been for any other game this season. If Guardiola is to get what he wants, the club are going to have to cross their fingers that just about everything comes off.
City fans who turn up every week will be there on Wednesday night doing what they can, but there are fewer of them than there used to be because everything has become more expensive in recent years. The club have actually reduced ticket prices for Champions League games after freezing season tickets for this season - adults will pay between £25 and £45 for Galatasaray with Under-18s just £10 - yet cup schemes have become a luxury fewer people can afford in general.
There isn't one type of fan who those tickets end up with. Some will go to Blueswho have been itching to go to more games, others to fans who don't normally experience a matchday, and more yet may end up in the hands of fans who aren't actually City fans at all.
Again, the club has tried. While it did not respond to comments for the piece on other measures, anyone who wants to buy tickets for the game through official channels has to have been a Cityzens matchday member before the Champions League draw was made this season, and must have bought tickets for at least two previous games.
That is an attempt to learn from issues in previous seasons, such as when Real Madrid fans managed to buy tickets in the home end last year. Whether it will be enough though remains to be seen when there are other possibilities for Galatasaray fans.
There were tickets showing as available to buy in almost every section of the ground on unauthorised third party sites on Tuesday before the game (for extortionate prices) that could be exploited by visiting supporters. Unless the club or stewards can step in - and it is a big ask to expect stewards to police such situations - unauthorised sellers will continue to threaten safety and atmosphere, especially if they are able to snap up tickets that go on the exchange.
With Galatasaray, City are up against a fanbase that are huge, passionate and organised about doing whatever they can to get a ticket. Anonymous social media accounts have been sprouting up for weeks trying to buy their way into the ground and do at the Etihad what they managed at Old Trafford in 2023.
United were forced to apologise after their Champions League game with the Turkish giants in 2023 because thousands of away fans managed to get into the home sections sitting together. The match had been deemed low-risk because only half of the 4,000 away allocation was taken up, yet United fans who turned up were greeted by Galatasaray supporters in the home ends and the club opted not to remove them as 'forced ejections can pose risks'.
United apologised to their fans after the game and took steps to avoid anything similar happening again in future. City will have taken notice that in their efforts to learn lessons that can mean the only story after Wednesday night is Guardiola's praise for the home supporters that roared his team into the Champions League last-16.
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