Manchester City begin their quest for the Champions League in the 2022/23 Season with their first group stage game against winless Sevilla.
City were held to a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa at the weekend but maintained their unbeaten start. On the contrary, Sevilla lost for the third time in the first four games of La Liga against FC Barcelona.
SEV vs MCI Match Details
Date: Tuesday, 6 September 2022/ Wednesday, 7 September 2022
Time: 21:00 (CET) / 00:30 (IST)
Venue: Ramos Sanchez Pizjuan, Seville
SEV vs MCI Match Preview
Having finished last season with a record number of points in their club history in La Liga, Sevilla didn’t dream of experiencing the worst start to their league campaign since 1982. Winless in their first game of the league season and routed by FC Barcelona at the weekend, Sevilla head into a nerve-wracking Champions League fixture against Manchester City low on confidence. The side from
Seville started the La Liga season with a shock loss to Osasuna then followed it with a 1-1 draw against Valladolid before defeats to Almeria and Barcelona left a more sour taste. At the weekend, the side started brilliantly in a short 15-minute spell against the Catalan giants in Sanchez Pizjuan yet couldn’t resist a collapse again thrashed 3-0 at the end. The two other opponents of the four they faced are in the lower half of the table presently. Sevilla possessed the best defense in the division last season, better than La Liga champions Real Madrid, having conceded only 30 goals from the full round of games. They have already let in six in the opening set of games this term. The main cause for their defensive lapse has been the breakage of the solid partnership between Diego Carlos and Jules Kounde with the latter registering two assists against his former club at the weekend. Carlos has moved to Aston Villa in the Premier League and Kounde’s departure to Barcelona was imminent amid some drama with Chelsea. Sevilla have not recovered from the blow of losing their two key central defenders in the market as shown by their slump this season while Tanguy Ninazou has too much to shoulder at the age of only 20 making the switch from Bayern Munich this summer. The previous season’s European campaign was not productive enough for the Spanish outfit finishing third in their Champions League group and then ousting the Europa League in the round of 16 stages against semifinalists West Ham. Sevilla are in desperate need for positivity before they take on their home turf again in a week to welcome a fabulous Manchester City team boasting a lethal goal-scorer who has troubled the hosts before.
City became the victim of missed chances against Aston Villa as they could only draw a match for the second time this season in the Premier League. Credit goes to Steven Gerrard for finally making Villa behave as a unit in preventing the guests to take all three points for the game and if the officials haven’t disallowed a certain goal from Phillipe Coutinho wrongly, the result could have been different. Erling Haaland scored with his 10th strike in six games to give the league champions the lead but a series of missed opportunities led Leon Bailey to level things up in the second half. City will be wishing to shake off the result to start another journey in the Champions League for the 12th consecutive season and clinch the silverware next year with a phenomenal goal-scorer on their side. However, manager Pep Guardiola has said Man City cannot rely solely on the special quality of Haaland to help them win the title as all the other players have to make the team better otherwise it won’t make much sense. This is especially what City felt in the semifinal stage of the Champions League last season against eventual winners Real Madrid where they were up 5-3 on aggregate with 20 minutes to go in the second leg only to concede two goals in injury time and lose the whole tie in the extra period afterwards. The Champions League final last year is the highest they ever reached in this competition. City fans expect the team to emerge winners this time out having done a shrewd summer business also making the signing of Manuel Akanji from Dortmund, star midfielder Kalvin Philips from Leeds and talented left-back Sergio Gomez from Anderlecht along with Erling Haaland. The team will face the 22-year-old’s former team Borussia Dortmund next before the two games with Danish champions FC Copenhagen. A winning start in their trip to Spain will be an ideal beginning to their champions league campaign.
Recent Form (League)
SEV: LLDL
MCI: DWWD
SEV vs MCI Team News
Sevilla left out Oliver Torres from the squad, reaching the registration limit of players per squad in the Champions League. Fernando and Erik Lamela are now major doubts for the game having not trained after the weekend game and a late session is required for their availability. Center-back Karim Rekik is also doubtful as he has recently come back from his injury. Manager Julien Lopetegi said he will decide based on what the team needs. Jesus Corona is out for the rest of the year with ligament damage.
Kyle Walker, John Stones and Aymeric Laporte have not traveled with the squad to face Sevilla for Manchester City. The right-back limped off the pitch in the draw against Aston Villa with a possible injury to be replaced by Nathan Ake. The Dutch center-back returned from his groin issue and has made the squad. John Stones has also not made the squad due to a muscular problem but new signing Manuel Akanji has. The defender transferred from Borussia Dortmund missed the weekend game against Aston Villa due to the birth of his second child but could feature in the midweek. Another new signing, left-back Sergio Gomez could make his full debut for City. Jack Grealish was an unused substitute against his former club at the weekend on his return from injury and will try to earn his place in the starting eleven in the opening group stage game of the Champions League. Summer arrival Kalvin Phillips has also made his return to the team after suffering a shoulder injury last month.
SEV vs MCI Predicted Lineups
SEV: Yassine Bounou; Jesus Navas, Tanguy Ninazou, Fernando, Marcos Acuna; Joan Jordan, Thomas Delaney, Ivan Rakitic, Erik Lamela, En-Nesyri, Alejandro Gomez
MCI: Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Sergio Gomez; De Bruyne, Rodri, Ikay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish
SEV vs MCI Head to Head
Manchester City gained the upper hand in both the games against Sevilla in the 2015-16 group stages of the Champions League winning 2-1 at home and 3-1 in the last meeting at Sanchez Pizjuan. Now Sevilla man, Jesus Navas played in both the games for City also assisting a goal against his present side here.
SEV vs MCI Dream11 Team Prediction
GK: Ederson
DEF: Cancelo, Dias, Navas, Acuna
MID: Mahrez, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Rakitic, A Gomez
FW: Haaland
Captain: Erling Haaland
Vice-captain: De Bruyne
Riyad Mahrez finished as City’s top-scorer in the Champions League for Manchester City with 11 goals last season. He scored a goal and delivered an assist in the last two games for City in the competition.
Kevin De Bruyne and Haaland combined for the second goal this season in the Premier League while the Belgian has racked up 4 assists in this season. He has also scored a goal in this fixture and contributed to 5 goals in 9 games last season in the Champions League.
Erling Haaland has scored 4 goals in the last two games he played against Sevilla in Borussia Dortmund shirt that time. He still scored 3 goals in only two games he managed to play last season in the Champions League due to an injury after scoring 10 in each of his prior two seasons in the competition.
