Manchester City are taking on Sporting CP in their fourth Champions League match tonight.
Manchester City are looking to bounce back from the Premier League defeat to Bournemouth at the weekend, and are coming up against a red-hot Sporting side.
Ruben Amorim will be leaving the Portuguese giants to join Manchester United in the next international break, but his side have really impressed so far this season.
They have won all 10 of their league games so far, hitting 35 goals and conceding just three.
They have also won two further cup games.
It will be a tough game for City, who as we know, have a number of injury concerns at the moment.
Ahead of tonight’s game, Pep Guardiola spoke to reporters at his press conference yesterday to provide an update on the shape of his squad.
Pep Guardiola provides update on six Man City players, including ‘excellent’ news on Kevin De Bruyne
City are really hoping to get back on track tonight in the Champions League.
The team were poor against Bournemouth, who were deserved winners at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
City are seeking to take three points tonight, with the goal to seal automatic qualification to the knockout stages. Victory tonight would put City in a promising position on 10 points.
Guardiola spoke about several players ahead of the game.
Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji had made ‘incredible’ efforts to even play against Bournemouth, according to Guardiola.
Ake and Akanji were seen in Man City training on Monday, but Guardiola said of the pair: “Manu [Akanji] and Nathan [Ake] are still with problems.”
There are also concerns over a couple more players.
Guardiola added: “Kyle [Walker] as well, problems with his knee since he was with the national team. [Jeremy] Doku always has a little bit of problems in his muscular issues.”
But there were more positive updates about Savinho and Kevin De Bruyne. Savinho’s ankle is ‘getting better’.
On De Bruyne, Guardiola said: “Kevin [De Bruyne] is getting better and adding sessions with less pain so we feel that he feels more and more comfortable. That is excellent news for him and all of us.”
A tough game lies in wait
City will want to get back on track after an out-of-sorts performance against Bournemouth, but tonight’s game has the potential to be the club’s hardest so far this season.
Sporting have been free-scoring under Amorim and have several threats in their team.
Probably the biggest threat of all is Viktor Gyokeres, who has been absolutely sensational so far in 2024/25.
The Sweden international has been deadly, scoring 20 goals in just 16 appearances.
City fans will hope to see Kevin De Bruyne involved in some capacity tonight, with the £55 million Belgian having been sidelined for nearly two months now.
Guardiola’s update on him was positive, and De Bruyne could apparently have played against Bournemouth on Saturday but seemingly, the conditions of the game just weren’t right for him in the end.
