City make four changes to side for Galatasaray clash | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has made four changes to his City side for tonight's crucial Champions League meeting with Galatasaray.

Men's Team

Marmoush interview in Galatasaray matchday programme

January signings Marc Guéhi and Antoine Semenyo are not yet registered, while Rodri is suspended after his red card against Bodo/Glimt.

Tijjani Reijnders drops to the bench, with Nathan Ake, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland coming in.

City know a victory is likely required to stand any chance of finishing in the table’s top eight and skipping next month’s play-off round.

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Matheus Nunes’ inclusion from the start sees him reach 100 games in a Manchester City, midway through his third campaign at the Etihad Stadium.

It’s the first ever meeting between City and Galatasaray and our first clash with a Turkish side since losing to Fenerbahce in 1968/69.

Teams

CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Khusanov, Ake, Ait-Nouri, Bernardo (C), O’Reilly, Marmoush, Cherki, Doku, Haaland

Subs: Trafford, Bettinelli, Reijnders, Nico, Foden, Gray, Mukasa, Alleyne, Lewis, Mfuni

GALATASARAY XI: Ugurcan, Sallai, Sanchez, Abdulkerim, Jakobs, Gundogan (C), Lemina, Sara, Sane, Yilmaz, Osimhen

Subs: Sen, Guvenc, Icardi, Akgun, Elmail, Kutucu, Ayhan, Torreira, Kahraman, Karasu, Kocak, Singo

Men's Team

Gundogan: This club will always be close to my heart

Tactics

Gianluigi Donnarumma’s goal will likely be protected by a back four of Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nathan Ake and Rayan Ait-Nouri.

We’d expect Bernardo Silva and Nico O’Reilly to be in the engine room, with Omar Marmoush, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki all interchanging behind Erling Haaland.

Men's Team

This could be my best season – Doku

Permutations

With the 36-team Champions League table so condensed, there’s little point in speculating exactly where we will finish.

What we do know is that we’ll play again in the Champions League this season after tonight.

A defeat guarantees that will be in the play-off round, while a draw makes that extremely likely.

Victory is what we really need to stand a genuine chance of finishing in the top eight and avoiding that play-off altogether.

With all 36 teams playing at the same time, we’ll make sense of the final table as soon as possible after full time.

View full table

Men's Team

Pep spells out City priority ahead of key Galatasaray clash

Returning heroes

The Etihad will welcome back to two favourites as part of Galatasaray’s travelling party, with Ilkay Gundogan and Leroy Sane both part of the Turkish giants’ squad.

Gundogan spoke beautifully yesterday about what this Club means to him.

“Of course, I’m still a fan of this football club, this team and this manager,” he said.

“I watch as many games of City’s as I can and even if we weren’t facing them in this competition, it wouldn’t change anything for me because there are so many people close to my heart here, and obviously I wish City nothing but the best.”

Pep returned the favour with a eulogy of his own.

“I am grateful to both of them. They made incredible contributions and they are lovely people,” he said on Tuesday.

“I am happy to see them back.”

Let’s give them a big Etihad welcome!

Approaching 400

Pep Guardiola has won 399 of his 568 games in charge of City so far.

So tonight could see him tick over to another fresh landmark, having been victorious in more than 70% of his games so far.

He’ll also break the record for managers in charge of English sides in terms of how quickly they reached the figure.

Arsene Wenger is the current fastest, hitting the figure in 696 games while Alex Ferguson took 732 matches.

So, a win today would see him get there 127 games before Wenger and 163 before Ferguson. Astounding.

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