Manchester City return to the Etihad Stadium with their European campaign needing a response. Enzo Maresca’s side have swept through the opening seven rounds of the Premier League, yet their Champions League position tells a less comfortable story before AEK Athens arrive.
The 4-2 home defeat to Paris Saint-Germain last Wednesday left City 17th in the league-phase table on three points. They had opened the competition with a 2-0 win at Porto, but the reverse against the two-time European champions interrupted their early momentum.
Quick facts
- Manchester City sit 17th in the Champions League league phase with three points.
- AEK Athens also have three points and stand three places below City.
- Erling Haaland has scored 12 goals across his last eight City appearances.
- Antoine Semenyo will miss around eight weeks with a knee injury.
- AEK postponed their Greek Super League fixture at the weekend to prepare for the trip.
Haaland is the main fitness concern for the hosts. The Norwegian struck twice against Ipswich on Saturday but suffered a knock to his foot in added time, placing his availability in doubt for the AEK match.
Maresca offered encouragement after the latest assessment, saying Haaland “could be available” and had felt better the previous day. The forward also scored two goals in the PSG defeat, underlining the scale of City’s potential loss should he be ruled out.
Semenyo, however, is definitely unavailable. He damaged his knee after coming on for only the final quarter of an hour against Ipswich and is expected to be sidelined for eight weeks.
Despite the PSG setback and the injury concerns, Maresca is not expected to make wholesale changes. City will look to use the AEK fixture to climb quickly from the lower reaches of the new Champions League table.
AEK travel from Athens with their own uneven European record. Marko Nikolic’s team began with a 1-0 victory over Austria’s LASK, secured by Romanian midfielder Razvan Marin, before losing 3-1 to Arda Turan’s Shakhtar Donetsk at Stamford Bridge.
The Greek side had taken the lead in that match before Shakhtar turned the evening around. AEK are fourth in the Greek Super League and successfully asked for their Saturday domestic game to be postponed, allowing extra recovery time for the Manchester journey.
Luka Jovic gives Nikolic a proven name in attack. The former Real Madrid and Milan striker leads the Greek league scoring chart with four goals, and AEK will need his finishing if they are to trouble a City side seeking to restore its European footing in front of its own supporters.
