Date: Tuesday, November 5 Venue: Etihad Stadium Kick-Off: 19:45 Manchester City can assure safe passage through to the knock-out stages of the Champions League by seeing off CSKA Moscow in Tuesday night's Group D fixture.
Team News
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has already confirmed Joe Hart will remain on the bench for tonight's visit of CSKA Moscow. That means another start for understudy Costel Pantilimon, who will be making his third consecutive appearance for City. Captain Vincent Kompany and forward Stevan Jovetic remain absent. CSKA have a defensive injury pile-up to contend with, with Mário Fernandes and Vasili Berezutski both missing, while midfield duo Aleksandrs Caua and Alan Dzagoev are also sidelined. Rasmus Elm is in contention however after making his first appearance since suffering a calf injury in mid-October on Saturday. (eurosport)
Key Stats
Manchester City already have twice as many points (six) as they managed in the 2012-13 Champions League group games, from half the games. CSKA Moscow have never won a European away game in England (D3 L1). If City win, this will be only the second time they've won two consecutive Champions League games. CSKA have conceded more first half goals (five) than any other team this season.
Likely Line-Ups
Man City Pantilimon, Richards, Lescott, Nastasic, Kolarov, Navas, Fernandinho, Toure, Milner, Aguero, Dzeko CSKA Akinfeev, Nababkin, A. Berezutsky, Ignashevich, Schennikov, Wernbloom, Milanov, Tosic, Honda, Zuber, Musa
Match Preview
What an incredible three days this could be for Manchester City. Following their 7-0 thumping of Norwich - their biggest ever win in the Premier League, City could set another milestone by qualifying for the knock-out stages of the Champions League for the first time tonight. Victory here would all-but assure them of that. Second in Group D with six points, victory would take their tally to nine, meaning it would be unlikely at best for them to be caught by tonight's opponents, CSKA. Off the field issues aside, we will all be looking for an avoidance of the shameful racist chanting by a section of the Russian support the last time these sides met, with Moscow hit with a partial-stadium closure by UEFA for chants directed at City's Yaya Toure. City manager Manuel Pellegrini echoed this sentiment in his post-match media interviews, telling eurosport:
"The fans of CSKA made an important mistake. The club, I don't know why they denied it at the beginning or what their reaction is now but UEFA acted and gave them the punishment they deserve. I hope we can leave it in the past and it will be an example for Russian fans because they have a World Cup in their country."
Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.
