Manchester City are gearing up for their fourth Champions League match against Sporting CP, with a training session being held this morning.
The players are looking to dust themselves down after suffering a first Premier League defeat against Bournemouth at the weekend.
Manchester City were not at the races at the Vitality Stadium, losing 2-1 to the Cherries.
It was a deserved win for the Cherries, and Pep Guardiola will now be tasked with getting the team back on track, against a Sporting CP side who are about to lose their manager.
Ruben Amorim was once thought to be of interest to City as a potential Guardiola successor, but will take over at Manchester United soon.
The City squad have been in training this morning, and reporter Joe Bray has shared a couple of updates.
Ake and Akanji train, but three Man City players absent
It is well documented that City have several injury problems at the moment.
Rodri and Oscar Bobb are long-term absentees, but Guardiola has lost a number of players recently.
This morning, City have had a training session and journalist Joe Bray was watching on. He reports that both Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji were involved.
Both of these players were said not to be in the best condition at the Bournemouth game.
Guardiola had said that both defenders had made ‘incredible’ efforts to even play against the Cherries (via MEN), leading to some doubt that they would train ahead of the game with Sporting.
They were training this morning though. But unfortunately, there was no sign of Ruben Dias, John Stones or Jack Grealish.
Guardiola has said Dias will be injured until after the international break, and Stones is also a doubt for the next two matches.
Grealish has missed the last three games for City and is out until after the international break.
But there is some other good news. Savinho was seen pictured in Man City training on Sunday, and the Brazilian will likely feature against Sporting.
Sporting will be a stern test for Man City
Despite all the injury problems, City still head into tomorrow night’s game as the favourites to win.
But it will not be an easy game at all.
We have seen City struggle defensively this season and clean sheets have been very hard to come by. Sporting are a great attacking side under Amorim, having already hit 35 goals across their 10 league games so far.
| Sporting CP in 2024/25 | Man City in 2024/25 |
| Games played – 15 | Games played – 12 |
| Wins – 14 | Wins – 8 |
| Draws – 1 | Draws – 3 |
| Losses – 0 | Losses – 1 |
| Goals scored – 45 | Goals scored – 33 |
They have also hit a further five in the cup competitions, and scored three against FC Porto in the Supertaca.
City must be especially wary of striker Viktor Gyokeres, who is in utterly devastating form right now.
The Swedish sensation has hit a whopping 20 goals already this season in just 16 appearances, and the City backline must try and keep him in check.
