It’s a Champions League night involving Manchester City and the only real jeopardy hanging over the occasion is how many changes Pep Guardiola decides to make.
City travel to Anfield on Sunday in a pivotal game in the Premier League title race and, barring the sporting equivalent of an act of god, will surely progress beyond tonight’s opponents Copenhagen after a 3-1 victory in Denmark.
Copenhagen made a decent fist of it in the first leg of this last-16 tie, but Phil Foden’s 92nd-minute goal looks like putting City beyond reach. If City do a professional job tonight, they will be through to the Champions League quarter-finals and the prospect of consecutive Trebles will remain alive.
You might imagine Guardiola resting key players such as John Stones, Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland to keep them fresh for Liverpool, but City’s manager often goes stronger than you anticipate on nights like these.
Strange as it is to say a week after Haaland scored five at Luton in the FA Cup, but City might want to give him a chance to fill his boots and find a hot streak of form in front of goal.
Since Haaland moved to Borussia Dortmund in 2019, this is the first league campaign in which he has underperformed his expected goals, scoring 18 in the Premier League from 20.8 xG. Misses such as the sitter in the Manchester derby may explain that, but it is worrying for City’s rivals that an uptick could be around the corner if Haaland returns to his historic finishing levels.
“People say I’m good at scoring goals but I missed the biggest chance in the world ever two days ago. I can also become better at that,” Haaland said in the pre-match press conference.
Full team news on the way shortly.
