Key occasions
12 min: Bernardo Silva strikes the put up, working on to a move from Jack Grealish, although it’s moving into till the toe of Grabara intervenes.
11 min: Metropolis proceed to swarm throughout Copenhagen. Mahrez and Alvarez have one thing to show, and can wish to get on the scoresheet.
9 min: Will Copenhagen have to return out to play? In all probability not a foul thought to remain sat in for some time. This can be a damage-limitation train already.
Aim! Manchester Metropolis 1-0 Copenhagen (Guess Who, 7)
Cancelo’s ball to the sting of the field and blam! He scores. Sure, him. Pep Guardiola laughs out loud because it goes in.
7 min: Haaland is the goal as Alvarez will get to the byline. Copenhagen get it clear and so they look stable to be honest to them.
5 min: No precise pictures but, although. And the ball is again with Ederson.
4 min: Sure, it’s all Metropolis. May this be a possession report?
2 min: Early dominance from Metropolis. Bernardo Silva has joined the attack-line, Pep Guardiola enjoying 2-3-5 in tribute to the buccaneering First Division title winners of 1936-7? They received relegated the following yr, nonetheless scoring essentially the most targets.
1 min: And we’re away on the Etihad, and so begins the depend to what number of targets Metropolis will run in. Alvarez and Haaland are shut collectively. This appears like a 4-4-2 for Metropolis, and two of the 4 are Grealish and Mahrez.
There’s a minute of silence for these misplaced within the stadium catastrophe that occurred in Indonesia on the weekend.
The gamers are able to take the sector on the Etihad. Previous the tunnel membership they go, these followers who’ve paid further to look by way of glass behind the scenes. And sure, the Uefa ban will get a boo from the Metropolis followers. It’s been louder previously however the loathing continues to be implicit.
Pep Guardiola speaks, and he’s suggesting that with solely 20 gamers everybody has to play the entire time. “All people has to play. They don’t have to indicate me something. We all know them. If they’re right here we reply on them.”
He’s additionally glad to have the ability to area Ruben Dias and Aymeric Laporte collectively for the primary time shortly.
In different information, Bayer Leverkusen have taken on maybe the one coach and Champions League winner who listens to My Bloody Valentine and Swans.
– I used to be at this gig, most memorable for Michael Gira’s expectoration.
That is solely Julian Alvarez’s second begin of the season. He scored twice on his earlier begin, within the 6-0 defeat of Nottingham Forest, and that is his first Champions League begin.
For Copenhagen, Mat Ryan doesn’t get his likelihood as Kamil Grabara comes again in aftera facial harm. It appears like a 4-3-3 formation, and Mamoudou Karamoko will maybe supply extra mobility than Cardiff legend Andreas Cornelius.
Pep Guardiola make 5 modifications from the 6-3 derby win. Kyle Walker is out, and could also be for some time, Joao Cancelo switches to right-back and Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte and Sergio Gomez make up the again 4. Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden are benched after their derby heroics, and in come Alvarez and Mahrez to play off Haaland.
The groups are in – Haaland begins, as does Alvarez
Manchester Metropolis: Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Gomez, Mahrez, Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Grealish, Alvarez, Haaland Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Akanji, Foden, Palmer, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand
FC Copenhagen: Grabara, Diks, Vavro, Khocholava, Kristiansen, Stamenic, Larager, Johannesson, Claesson, Daramy, Karamako. Subs: Johnsson, Ryan, Sorensen, Babacar, Cornelius, Mukairu, Jelert, Ankersen, Lund, Haraldsson, Bardghji.
Extra Haaland hype….will he begin? Group information very quickly.
“At his age nobody can compete with him,” Guardiola stated. “The numbers communicate for themselves and inside, within the locker room, and on the pitch we see issues that aren’t within the stats that make us really feel glad to have him right here.”
Brighton and Arsenal followers could recognise the Australian goalie for Copenhagen.
Preamble
The query right here, as it’s now about Manchester Metropolis, is what number of will Erling Haaland rating towards his fellow Scandinavians. Will Erling Haaland really play towards his fellow Scandinavians? Maybe that’s the issue with signing a generational expertise; it may overshadow a membership as profitable as Manchester Metropolis, with a supervisor as generational a expertise as Pep Guardiola. Even with a strikeforce shorn of the good younger man, Metropolis are anticipated to smash their guests, who solely have some extent from their first two matches, a draw with Sevilla. Get this one gained, and that needs to be the expectation, then Metropolis are trying good for the knockouts, happening after the 2022 World Cup, when every thing could look very totally different. It could possibly be an evening when the likes of Haaland and Phil Foden are rested, so an opportunity to see somebody like Julian Alvarez given a correct run could possibly be a variety of enjoyable.
Kick-off is at 8pm, be a part of me.