Trafford starts as City make 10 changes for Bayer Leverkusen clash | OneFootball

City make 10 changes for Tuesday night’s latest UEFA Champions League clash at home to Bayer Leverkusen.

Men's Team

City v Leverkusen programme: Cherki on the cover and Doku main interview

From the side that started last weekend’s Premier League trip to Newcastle, Nico is the sole player to retain his place in the starting 11.

James Trafford, skipper John Stones, Tijjani Reijnders, Nathan Ake, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Abdukodir Khusanov, Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb, Savinho and Omar Marmoush all come into the side.

For Trafford it marks a first appearance in the Champions League since his summer move to City from Burnley.

Gianluigi Donnarumma, Ruben Dias, Rayan Cherki, Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva, Josko Gvardiol, Matheus Nunes, Nico O’Reilly, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden all revert to the bench for a match that sees Pep Guardiola take charge of his 100th Champions League game proper for City since taking over as manager in 2016.

Rodri and Mateo Kocavic are both still unavailable for selection due to injury.

Teams

CITY XI: Trafford, Khusanov, Stones (C), Ake, Ait-Nouri, Lewis, Nico, Reijnders, Bobb, Savinho, Marmoush

Subs: Bettinelli, Donnarumma, Dias, Haaland, Cherki, Doku, Bernardo, Gvardiol, Nunes, O’Reilly, Foden

Bayer Leverkusen: Flekken, Quansah, Bade, Tillman, Schick, Poku, Grimaldo, Garcia, Maza, Kofane, Belocian.

Subs: Lomb, Schlick, Echeverri, Ben Seghir, Tellah, J Mensah, Culbreath, Hawighorst, N. Mensah, Pohl.

Men's Team

Gvardiol: We will be there

Formation and tactics

James Trafford lines up in goal with the English keeper international shielded by a back four of Khusanov, Stones, Ake and Ait-Nouri.

Nico is set to assume the holding role in midfield with Reijnders and Lewis also in the City engine room.

Marmoush looks likely to be City’s striking focal point with Oscar Bobb and Savinho also set to be deployed further forward.

However, as always, such is the City squad’s tactical and technical flexibility those positions could be subject to change.

Ton up Pep

Over the course of his storied City career, Pep Guardiola has become no stranger to creating notable records.

And tonight marks another major milestone for the Etihad boss with Pep taking charge of the 100th Champions League proper fixture of his City career.

To date, Guardiola has led the Blues into 99 games in Europe’s elite knockout competition proper with two further games coming against Steaua Bucharest during qualifying for the 2016/17 edition.

And it’s fair to say the gifted Catalan has more than made his mark.

So far, he’s guided us to 62 victories, with 19 draws and 18 defeats.

In that time, City have scored 234 goals and conceded just 111 times, giving us an overall goal difference of +123.

The standout campaign was obviously 2022/23, when we lifted the famous trophy for the first time in our history as part of a European Treble.

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Men's Team

Guardiola says no fresh injuries for Leverkusen

This term, City have made a fine fist of things so far in Europe and at the halfway stage of the league phase we lie in fourth position having claimed 10 points from our four games to date.

Here’s hoping its another night to remember for Pep and City!

German bite

Tonight’s visit of Leverkusen to the Etihad will mark the eighth different German team that we have faced in European competition.

Across that time, the Blues have established a fined record when taking on Bundesliga opposition. From 38 games to date, our record stands at won 24, drawn 6, lost 8.

Furthermore, City have only lost one of our last 24 games against German teams in the UEFA Champions League (W19 D4), a 2-1 defeat at RB Leipzig in December 2021. City have scored 67 goals across these 24 matches, at an average of 2.8 per game.

By way of further positive omens, City have also won our last 13 home games against German opposition in the UEFA Champions League by an aggregate score of 49-13.

Ironically, the last German side to avoid defeat there in the competition is Bayern Munich in October 2013 (3-1 win), who were then managed by Pep Guardiola!

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Men's Team

How can I watch City v Bayer Leverkusen on TV?

Stats and facts

Bayer Leverkusen have lost eight of their 10 away games against English sides in the UEFA Champions League (W1 D1), with their only victory and clean sheet there coming in a 1-0 win over Tottenham in November 2016. Their most recent trip was a 0-4 defeat against Liverpool at Anfield last season (November 2024)

City haven’t trailed at any point in the UEFA Champions League this season, and have led for 62% of their total match time (239:45). In over two hours of play when our matches have been level (146:43), Guardiola’s side have had 41 shots and only faced two in return (+39).

City rank first in the UEFA Champions League this season for successful passes (2,511), pass accuracy (91.9%), 10+ pass sequences in open play (95) and passes per sequence (6.2). At the same time, we are the only team who haven’t conceded a single opposition fast break in the current edition.

Erling Haaland could make his 50th start in the UEFA Champions League here (currently on 49). The Norwegian will hold the record for most goals scored within a player’s first 50 starts in the competition, even if he doesn’t find the net in this match (50).

Bayer Leverkusen midfield Aleix García - a former City Academy graduate - has made the most successful switches of play in the UEFA Champions League this season, as well as having a 100% completion rate on attempted switches (8/8). The Spaniard also ranks third for line-breaking passes by midfielders this term (48), only behind Joey Veerman (70) and Vitinha (63).

24 of Erling Haaland’s 31 goals for City in the UEFA Champions League have been first time finishes (77%), with his total of 24 being the most by any player in the competition since the start of 2022-23.