Reigning European champions Manchester City head to FC Copenhagen on Tuesday for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last 16 tie.
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Pep Guardiola’s side have been unstoppable since mid-December as they’ve won the Club World Cup and 10-straight games in all competitions. They’re the overwhelming favorites to get past Copenhagen and they are injury free which is huge at this stage of the season. Plus, having Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne back from injury and almost up to full speed is scary.
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As for the hosts, they unexpectedly made it through to the last 16 as the Danish champions beat Manchester United in the group stage and finished above the Red Devils and Galatasaray to grab second spot and a second-ever trip to the knockout rounds of the Champions League. What a job Jacob Neestrup has done as Copenhagen had to go through three qualifying rounds just to make the group stage.
Copenhagen vs Manchester City, live score: 0-0
Goalscorers: None
How to watch Copenhagen vs Manchester City live, stream link and start time
Kick off: 3pm ET, Tuesday (February 13)
How to watch: Paramount+ and TUDN USA
Manchester City starting lineup
Ederson — Walker, Stone, Dias, Ake — Rodrigo, Bernardo, De Bruyne — Foden, Grealish, Haaland
Copenhagen starting lineup
Grabara — Jelert, Vavro, McKenna, Diks — Falk, Mattsson, Goncalves — Elyounoussi, Achouri, Claesson
Manchester City focus, team news
As we mentioned, Manchester City have zero injury issues and they even had the luxury of starting Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish on the bench on Saturday. That quartet came on as Erling Haaland scored twice in the final 20 minutes to seal a deserved win against Everton as City are once again looking to complete the treble and are hunting down Liverpool in the Premier League as they also have a game in-hand.
City went perfect in the Champions League group stage with six wins from six as they scored 18 goals in the process. In the build-up to this game Guardiola hinted at rotating City’s lineup a little bit and also urged Haaland to stay calm when chances aren’t calming his way.
“We don’t put pressure on him and say you have to score goals for us. No. We said get involved with what we do and the rest will come naturally. He is so strong mentally after one goal, he wants a second one and then a third. You see his numbers at his age – in the Champions League even Messi does not have these numbers art his age. It’s unbelievable. He has scored goals everywhere all the time. He has a special mentality and attributes and skills. We are delighted to have him. And we are delighted he is back after two months out.”
Copenhagen focus, team news
Being in the last 16 is a huge bonus for Copenhagen and they have absolutely nothing to lose. As we saw in their games against Manchester United, they’re more than happy to go for it and they’ll whip crosses into the box and launch counters whenever they can. Their stars are Mohamed Elyounoussi, teenager Roony Bardghji who scored the winner against United at Parken in the group stage and winger Diogo Goncalves as they share goals around and are a brave team. Watch out for Rasmus Falk and Elias Achouri too.
