Manchester City vs Napoli preview: Kevin De Bruyne keen to impress on his return to the Etihad

Kevin De Bruyne will be back in familiar territory as his new Napoli side travel to Manchester City for their Champions League phase opener on Thursday night at the Etihad.

City claimed bragging rights over local rivals Manchester United with a 3-0 win last time out.

Napoli recorded a 3-1 win against Fiorentina last weekend, as De Bruyne and Rasmus Højlund, who found the back of the net on his debut, were amongst the goal scorers.

They have begun their title defence, topping the Serie A table after just three games.

Match preview

City’s boss Pep Guardiola has faced Antonio Conte on seven occasions across all competitions, losing more matches (four) than he has won (three).

Erling Haaland is one goal away from reaching 50 in the Champions League (48 appearances) and looks all but assured to set a new record for the fewest appearances taken to hit 50 UCL goals.

The current holder of that record is Ruud van Nistelrooy, who achieved that feat in 62 games back in 2007.

I Azzurri have lost their last two matches against the Cityzens back in the 2017/18 campaign with a 2-1 and 4-2 group stage loss.

The Italian champions have struggled against English oppositions in England and have never won in 12 attempts.

Team news

Manchester City

John Stones, Omar Marmoush, Mateo Kovacic, Ryan Aït-Nouri and Ryan Cherki are all unavailable for the English side.

Napoli

Amir Rrahmani, Romelu Lukaku and Nikita Contini will be out of the travelling squad to Manchester.

Predicted line-ups

Manchester City: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Nico O’Reilly, Joško Gvardiol, Rúben Dias, Abdukodir Khusanov, Rodri, Jérémy Doku, Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders, Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland.

Napoli: Vanja Milinković-Savić, Leonardo Spinazzola, Alessandro Buongiorno, Sam Beukema, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Stanislav Lobotka, Scott McTominay, Kevin De Bruyne, Frank Anguissa, Matteo Politano, Rasmus Højlund.