City make three changes to tonight’s Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain.
Men’s team
Gabriel Jesus: Fine margins will define the PSG position
Ruben Dias, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Riyad Mahrez all come in the starting lineup.
From the side that started against Everton on Sunday, Aymeric Laporte and Cole Palmer return to the bench, while Phil Foden is not quite ready for selection.
Kevin De Bruyne is still unavailable for selection while continuing to isolate himself after a positive COVID-19 test.
Jack Grealish is also ruled out as he is still not recovering from returning from the international break with an injury.
team
TOWN: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Stones, Zinchenko, Rodrigo, Cancelo, Gundogan (c), Bernardo, Sterling, Mahrez
Subs: Steffen, Carson, Ake, Laporte, Fernandinho, Palmer, McAtee, Jesus
PSG: Navas, Hakimi, Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Tavares Mendes, Paredes, Herrera, Gueye, Messi, Mbappé, Neymar
Subs: Ramos, Verratti, Icardi, Di María, Danilo, Dagba, Wijnaldum, Diallo, Kehrer, Ebimbe, Franchi, G Donnarumma
Men’s team
Cancelo is a pleasure to watch, says Gundogan
Formation
As always, we’ll have to wait until tonight’s kick-off, where City have the opportunity to go with our tried and trusted 4-3-3 formation, alternatively a 4-4-2 formation or potentially even play a back five. .
If it’s a 4-3-3 base, goalkeeper Ederson, aiming for a 100th career clean sheet for City, could be shielded by a back four by Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, John Stones and most likely Joao Cancelo.
Rodrigo is set to be the holding midfielder with Ilkay Gundogan and Oleks Zinchenko getting their second start of the season, also potentially in the engine room.
Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez may form the attacking trio, but as always with our flexible quality, the kick-off will reveal the exact nature of our tactical approach!
Eyes on the prize
The math and permutations are deliciously simple for City ahead of the kick-off.
One point will guarantee that Guardiola’s side secures our ticket to the quarterfinals.
But a win over Mauricio Pochettino’s star – studded team would secure us first place in Group A with a match to spare.
So there is no lack of motivation ahead of one of the season’s most anticipated matches.
Men’s team
Guardiola explains the reasons for a successful Begiristain partnership
Statistics and facts
Head to head
• Manchester City went undefeated in their first five meetings with Paris Saint-Germain in European competition (W3 D2), but suffered a 2-0 defeat in their most recent meeting back in September.
• City have, however, won both their matches against the French team at home in the UEFA Champions League – 1-0 in April 2016 and 2-0 in May 2021.
• Manchester City failed to score in their last meeting with Paris Saint-Germain (0-2 in September); the first time they had not found the net against a French team in European competition since December 2008, when they played 0-0 against PSG in the UEFA Cup. They had scored 23 times in 11 matches between these two, with an average of 2.1 goals per game.
• Paris Saint-Germain have won only 20% of their meetings with Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League (1/5). Among teams they have met at least five times in the competition, only against Real Madrid (17% – 1/6) they have a lower victory percentage.
Manchester By
• Only Bayern Munich (17) have scored more goals than Manchester City (15) in the UEFA Champions League so far this season. City has an average of 3.4 expected goals (xG) per. struggle in competition during this period; since the beginning of 2013-14, this is the highest average per match of a team in the group stage of a single UEFA Champions League promotion.
• Manchester City have scored 15 goals in their four UEFA Champions League matches this season (3.75 per game), 10 of which come at the Etihad. However, they failed to score against PSG in the reverse match in Paris.
• Manchester City have won 15 and not lost any of their last 16 home matches in the UEFA Champions League (D1) since a 2-1 defeat to Lyon in September 2018.
• City have scored in each of their last 27 home games in all European tournaments and scored 76 goals in the process (2.8 per game) since the 0-0 draw against Real Madrid in April 2016.
• Jack Grealish has created more chances than any other Manchester City player (11) in the UEFA Champions League. Eight of those chances have been created after a ball carrying (moving 5+ yards with the ball), which is the biggest of any player in the competition this season.
• João Cancelo has been directly involved in five goals in his last four UEFA Champions League matches for Manchester City (two goals and three assists), including a hat-trick with assists in his last match against Club Brugge.
• Ederson’s next clean sheet will be his 100th for the club.
PSG
After winning only one of their first 10 away games against English opponents in European competition (D4 L5), Paris Saint-Germain have won two of their last three away games against English teams (L1), and both of these victories came in Manchester – 2-0 in February 2019 and 3-1 in December 2020 against Manchester United.
• Paris Saint-Germain are without a win in their last three away games in the UEFA Champions League (D2 L1), and can for the first time since 2004-05 go without an away win in the group stage of the competition in a single season.
• PSG’s Lionel Messi has scored seven goals in seven UEFA Champions League matches against Manchester City; second most by a player against an English club in the competition, after Messi’s hall of nine goals in six appearances against Arsenal.
• PSG striker Kylian Mbappé could be in line to make his 50th appearance in the UEFA Champions League in this match (currently at 49). If he does, he will be the second youngest fielder to reach 50 appearances in the competition (22y 339d), behind Cesc Fàbregas in March 2010 (22y 331d).
• PSG have lost just two of their last 21 group stage matches in the UEFA Champions League (W14 D5), and have gone undefeated in each of their last seven matches (W5 D2).
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