City make two changes for crunch Champions League clash

John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne have come into the Manchester City starting line-up for tonight’s UEFA Champions League clash with Club Brugge.

January signings Abdukodir Khusanov and Omar Marmoush drop out from the side following their debuts in the 3-1 victory over Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday.

The pair, along with Brazilian defender Vitor Reis, are ineligible to play in the Champions League at this stage of the competition.

De Bruyne takes the captain’s armband as he returns to the team with City needing a victory to avoid elimination from the tournament.

TEAMS

CITY XI: Ederson, Nunes, Stones, Akanji, Gvardiol, Kovacic, Gundogan, De Bruyne (C), Bernardo, Foden, Haaland.

Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Grealish, Savinho, Wright, Alleyne, O'Reilly, Lewis, McAtee

FORMATION

It's difficult to see Pep Guardiola making too many tactical changes to the side that triumphed over Chelsea.

Stones would appear to be a like-for-like replacement for Khusanov in the centre of defence alongside Manuel Akanji with Matheus Nunes and Josko Gvardiol as attacking full-backs.

That means Ilkay Gundogan and Mateo Kovacic dovetailing in midfield, with support from Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and De Bruyne.

But they will get forward at every opportunity to give support to Erling Haaland as our striking spearhead.

HOW IT STANDS

The equation is very simple, City need to win tonight to qualify for the play-off stage of the Champions League.

We currently sit 25th, one place outside of the qualification places entering the final round of fixtures, and a win would move us above tonight’s opposition and guarantee a place in the top 24.

A win would also see us finish above one or both of VfB Stuttgart or Paris Saint-Germain, who meet tonight in Germany.

City could finish as high as 19th depending on results for PSV, Benfica and Sporting but the priority is making sure of the three points to avoid an early exit tonight.

HAPPY HAALAND

It will be no surprise that Erling Haaland has an extraordinary record against Belgian opposition, given he has an extraordinary record against almost everyone.

Although he has not faced teams from Belgium while playing for City, he played them four times during his time at previous club Borussia Dortmund.

Haaland’s first ever Champions League appearance came in September 2017 against Genk when he scored a hat-trick in a 6-2 win before claiming a goal and an assist away to Kevin De Bruyne’s former club in a 4-1 victory two months later.

A year later, the German side were drawn with tonight’s opponents Club Brugge and scored twice in both of their back-to-back 3-0 victories.

Ahead of tonight’s game, the Norwegian averages a goal every 33 minutes against Belgium opponents.

MATCH STATS

City won both of our previous meetings with Club Brugge, 5-1 away and 4-1 at home during the 2021/22 Champions League group stage.

Club Brugge have never won away to English opposition in European competition in 14 previous attempts (drawing twice); only Anderlecht (19) and Dynamo Kyiv (15) have played more such games without recording a win in England.

We are unbeaten in our last 33 UEFA Champions League matches at the Etihad (winning 28), although three of our last four have ended as stalemates, losing a three-goal lead against Feyenoord to draw 3-3 last time out.

City have thrown away two-plus goal leads in the competition twice this term (3-3 vs Feyenoord, 2-4 vs PSG) – the only side to do so in three games in a single European Cup campaign were Reims in the inaugural edition in 1955/56.

Club Brugge are unbeaten in their last four matches in the UEFA Champions League (winning two), while only once previously have they had a longer run without defeat within the same European Cup/Champions League campaign (five games in 1976-77).

City have dropped eight points from winning positions in the Champions League this season, with only RB Leipzig (nine) losing more. Our defeat against PSG was the first time they had lost a game in which we were two goals up since May 2021 in the Premier League against Brighton (2-3).

Club Brugge failed to land a shot on target in their previous Champions League game (0-0 v Juventus). Ahead of their trip to the Etihad, they’ve never previously failed to do so in consecutive games in the competition on record.

We faced 26 shots in our 4-2 defeat to PSG last time out, having faced on average just 8.3 shots per game in our previous six Champions League matches this term. Indeed, it was their most shots faced in a match in the competition since September 2012 (35 vs Real Madrid).

Maxim De Cuyper and Christos Tzolis have both created 14 chances each in the Champions League this season; the joint-most for Club Brugge in a single campaign on record (since 2003/04). Indeed, Tzolis’ 12 chances created from open play is an outright season-high by a Brugge player in the same period.