Very interesting that Robert Lewandowski has been left on the Barcelona bench to face PSG – particularly because he has scored twice in La Liga in the last week, including the winner over Real Sociedad on Sunday. Hansi Flick has preferred Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford preferred – the latter, of course, scored both goals for Barça in their Champions League opener at Newcastle, a 2-1 win.
If you are wondering why Paul Pogba isn’t in the Monaco squad to face City, it’s because he is still building up his fitness since his summer move. Monaco’s club’s general director, Thiago Scuro said in July that they “expect a three-month process” in terms of getting fit, and that seems to be on track. This week, prior to City’s visit, Monaco manager Adi Hütter confirmed the club were “following his plan. We expected him maybe for the game against Nice [on Sunday] in the squad, but I think we have to postpone it for the game against Angers [on 18 October] maybe.
“At the moment he’s doing more of the warming up, and also in small-sided games. Now he’s increasing a lot, he’s doing well at the moment, and I hope after the national team break he can be a part of the squad.”
Here’s a bit of background to Pogba’s move to Monaco, in case you are catching up.
Will Unwin
It is a warm night in Monaco, a place Pep Guardiola does not remember fondly from his first Champions League campaign as Manchester City head coach. It was the Ligue 1 side that ended that European tour. Monaco had a team including Kylian Mbappé, Bernardo Silva and Fabinho, to name a few. The current crop of Monaco stars are far less bright and Adi Hutter’s problems are exacerbated by an array of injury problems, which means the midfield is down to its bare bones.
After beating Napoli in their opening fixture, Guardiola will see this as the perfect chance to double their point count and make an important step towards qualifying for the knockout stages. John Stones is brought into the team at right-back as the continuous rotation in that position keeps the rest of the defence and goalkeeper interested. After a disappointing European campaign last time, Guardiola cannot afford any slip ups. Considering the gap in quality between the two starting lineups, anything other than a City win would be a huge shock.
Imagine being Rasmus Højlund right now. Rather than warming the Manchester United bench, reeling from another defeat at Brentford and wincing at the thought of facing Sunderland this weekend, he is living in Naples, starting in the Champions League with Kevin De Bruyne on hand to provide assists. Oh, and he’s still earning that Premier League coin. Oooof.
Champions League team news
Monaco v Manchester City
Monaco: Kohn, Kehrer, Dier, Salisu, Vanderson, Teze, Coulibaly, Diatta, Akliouche, Fati, Balogun.
Subs: Ouattara, Cabral, Ilenikhena, Minamino, Idumbo-Muzambo, Biereth, Henrique, Lienard, Hradecky.
Man City: Donnarumma, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly, Rodri, Foden, Silva, Reijnders, Doku, Haaland. Subs: Lewis, Mukasa, Bobb, Matheus Luiz, Savio, Gonzalez, Kovacic, Ake, Trafford, Bettinelli.
Barcelona v PSG
Barcelona: Szczesny, Kounde, Eric Garcia, Cubarsi, Gerard, De Jong, Gonzalez, Yamal, Olmo, Rashford, Torres.
Subs: Kochen, Aller, Balde, Araujo, Lewandowski, Christensen, Casado, Bernal, Torrents, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji, Toni Fernandez.
PSG: Chevalier, Hakimi, Zabarnyi, Pacho, Nuno Mendes, Fabian,
Vitinha, Neves, Mbaye, Mayulu, Barcola.
Subs: Safonov, Marin, Lucas Beraldo, Goncalo Ramos, Lee, Hernandez, Zaire Emery, Jangeal, Ndjantou.
Bayer Leverkusen v PSV
Bayer Leverkusen: Flekken, Quansah, Bade, Tapsoba, Tape, Garcia, Fernandez, Grimaldo, Tillman, Poku, Kofane.
Subs: Blaswich, Lomb, Echeverri, Arthur, Ben Seghir, Maza, Belocian,
Izekor.
PSV: Kovar, Junior, Obispo, Gasiorowski, Saleh-Eddine, Saibari, Schouten, Veerman, Man, Til, Perisic.
Subs: Olij, Schiks, Flamingo, Wanner, Driouech, Bajraktarevic, Fernandez, Nagalo, Van Duiven.
Borussia Dortmund v Athletic Bilbao
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Sule, Anton, Bensebaini, Ryerson, Sabitzer, Chukwuemeka, Svensson, Adeyemi, Bellingham, Guirassy.
Subs: Meyer, Yan Couto, Schlotterbeck, Nmecha, Brandt, Gross, Beier, Silva.
Athletic Bilbao: Simon, Gorosabel, Paredes, Vivian, Lekue,
Jauregizar, Rego, Inaki Williams, Navarro, Gomez, Sannadi.
Subs: Santos, Padilla, Sancet, Guruzeta, Areso, Laporte, Ruiz de Galarreta, Yuri, Boiro, Serrano, Perez, Sanchez.
Villarreal v Juventus
Villarreal: Tenas, Mourino, Marin, Veiga, Pedraza, Comesana, Parejo, Gueye, Pepe, Mikautadze, Buchanan. Subs: Junior, Conde, Altimira, Akhomach, Partey, Moleiro, Oluwaseyi, Cardona.
Juventus: Perin, Kalulu Kyatengwa, Gatti, Kelly, Cambiaso, McKennie, Locatelli, Cabal, Koopmeiners, Yildiz, David.
Subs: Di Gregorio, Pinsoglio, Francisco Conceicao, Vlahovic, Zhegrova, Adzic, Kostic, Openda, Rugani, Joao Mario.
Napoli v Sporting
Napoli: Milinkovic-Savic, Spinazzola, Juan Jesus, Beukema, Gutierrez, Lobotka, Politano, Anguissa, De Bruyne, McTominay, Hojlund.
Subs: Meret, Ferrante, Gilmour, Neres, Olivera, Elmas, Vergara, Lucca, Ambrosino, Lang.
Sporting: Rui Silva, Fresneda, Quaresma, Inacio, Araujo, Hjulmand, Simoes, Catamo, Trincao, Quenda, Ioannidis.
Subs: Virginia, Matheus Reis, Morita, Debast, Goncalves, Vagiannidis, Kochorashvili, Diomande, Alisson Santos, Ribeiro, Ricardo Mangas, Suarez.
Preamble
Hello world!
Who says you can’t have a clockwatch that straddles both Europe’s finest club competition … and the Champions League. Boom, boom! We’ll be here all night (or around 11pm BST) with that sort of hollow humour. Come on in, the water is lukewarm.
That’s right, as well as four Championship fixtures, there is the small matter of Barcelona v PSG, Monaco v Manchester City and much, much more. Here is the full list of games we will be attempting to cover, although it should probably be flagged not equally. Not all matches are created as such.
We’ll have the team news shortly. But while you wait, please get stuck into these other liveblogs. Newcastle, playing in the earlier kick-off, are winning in Belgium.
And we have a dedicated liveblog to Arsenal v Olympiakos (8pm BST kick-off), which you can see right here.
