Key events
In other news, Bayer Leverkusen took perhaps the only manager and Champions League winner who listens to My Bloody Valentine and Swans.
– I was at this concert, the most memorable for the sputum of Michael Gira.
This is only Julian Alvarez’s second start of the season. He scored twice in his previous start, in the 6-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest, and this is his first Champions League start.
To Copenhagen, Mat Ryan is out of luck as Kamil Grabara returns from a facial injury. It looks like a 4-3-3 formation, and Mamoudou Karamoko may offer more mobility than Cardiff legend Andreas Cornelius.
Pep Guardiola make five changes since the 6-3 derby win. Kyle Walker is out, and maybe for a while Joao Cancelo moves to right-back and Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte and Sergio Gomez make up the back four. Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden are benched after their derby heroics, and come on Alvarez and Mahrez to take on Haaland.
The teams are there – Haaland starts, as does Alvarez
Manchester City: Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Gomez, Mahrez, Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Grealish, Alvarez, Haaland Subtitles: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Akanji, Foden, Palmer, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand
🔵 #UCL Team News 🔵
XI | Ederson, Cancelo, Dias, Laporte, Gomez, Mahrez, Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Grealish, Alvarez, Haaland
SUBSCRIPTIONS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Ake, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Akanji, Foden, Palmer, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand#ManCity pic.twitter.com/7me9CPkLq2
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 5, 2022
FC Copenhagen: Grabara, Diks, Vavro, Khocholava, Kristiansen, Stamenic, Larager, Johannesson, Claesson, Daramy, Karamako. Subtitles: Johnsson, Ryan, Sorensen, Babacar, Cornelius, Mukairu, Jelert, Ankersen, Lund, Haraldsson, Bardghji.
More Haaland hype… will he start? News from the team very soon.
“At his age, no one can compete with him,” Guardiola said. “The numbers speak for themselves and inside, in the locker room, and on the pitch, we see things that aren’t in the stats and that makes us happy to have him here.”
Brighton and Arsenal fans might recognize the Australian goalkeeper from Copenhagen.
Preamble
The question here, as it is now Manchester City, is how much Erling Haaland will score against his fellow Scandinavians. Will Erling Haaland really play against his Scandinavian compatriots? Perhaps that’s the problem with signing a generational talent; he can eclipse a club as successful as Manchester City, with a manager as generational as Pep Guardiola. Even with a strike force bereft of the big youngster, City are set to crush their visitors, who have just one point from their opening two matches, a draw with Sevilla. Get this one won, and that must be the expectation, so City look good for the knockouts, which will come after the 2022 World Cup, when everything may look very different. It could be a night when Haaland and Phil Foden are resting up, so a chance to see someone like Julian Alvarez have a good run could be a lot of fun.
Kick-off is at 8 p.m., join me.
