The Champions League is back with the quarter-finals taking place this midweek.
A host of star-studded teams come up against each other and it will be fascinating to see whether the bookies’ favourites’ Manchester City and Bayern Munich are able to progress faced with a couple of tricky ties ahead.
Here are three Premier League players to watch out
Diogo Jota
Diogo Jota has been in excellent form since his return from injury. He scored before the international break against Wolves and then continued his goal-scoring form for Portugal in the World Cup Qualifiers.
Jota is a young player who is at his peak form right now and was able to score a brace again for Liverpool in the Premier League match against Arsenal this weekend.
He is scoring goals for fun and decisive ones at that too. If he can turn up for Liverpool against the mighty Real Madrid, his name has to be taken along with the top attackers in world football currently.
Kevin De Bruyne
Kevin De Bruyne did not deliver a high-class performance in the international break. We even expected him to start from the bench for Manchester City against Leicester City but, he featured from the beginning and was effortlessly on a level higher than everyone else on the pitch.
His pinpoint through balls left the Leicester City defence hapless and bewildered but what caught the eye was his career-high of 14 ball recoveries which is astounding for a player of his attacking ability.
Pep will demand a similar level of performance from the Belgian whose big match pedigree will come in handy for City in the big clash against Borussia Dortmund.
Raheem Sterling
Raheem Sterling only played as a substitute in the Leicester City match and still assisted the second goal for Manchester City. So, he will be ready to feature in the first leg of the Champions League match. Sterling has the capability to run past any defence. He has shown his pace and dribbling skills over his career but is still not considered as someone who can turn up in decisive moments, partly due to a number of high profile misses over the last couple of seasons.
This will be a chance to change that perception though. He will be up against a team who play on the front foot and there is likely to be a lot of room to exploit for the Englishman. He will be relishing the opportunity to run behind a defence once again, having spent the majority of the season facing 6-men defensive walls every other week.