Manchester City vs Bayer Leverkusen preview: Pep Guardiola eyeing milestone Champions League victory

Manchester City hosts Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday night at the Etihad.

City fell to a disappointing 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United over the weekend. The Citizens eased to a 4-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund last time out in the Champions League and will be seeking their third consecutive victory in the competition.

Leverkusen saw off Wolfsburg 3-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday evening to climb up to second on the Bundesliga standings. Kasper Hjulmand’s men claimed their first Champions League victory of the campaign as they triumphed 1-0 at José Mourinho’s Benfica.

Match preview

This will be the first meeting between City and Leverkusen in UEFA competition.

Nevertheless, City have won each of their last 13 Champions League home games against German opposition by an aggregate score of 49-13, losing just one of their last 24 European matches against Bundesliga teams (W19 D4).

By contrast, Leverkusen have lost eight of their last 10 Champions League away games against English sides (W1 D1), including that 4-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield last season. Their only victory and clean sheet during that span came courtesy of a 1-0 win over Tottenham in November 2016.

Pep Guardiola will be taking charge of his 100th Champions League game with Manchester City (W62 D19 L18), becoming the third coach to achieve this feat with an English team after Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger.

Erling Haaland could make his 50th Champions League start and will look to mark the milestone by scoring for the sixth successive game in the competition.

His 49 starts (plus three sub appearances) have yielded 54 goals, including 10 in his last nine outings against German opponents.

Leverkusen have lost only three of their last 20 European group stage/league phase matches (W12 D5).

The win at home to Dortmund last time out was only City’s fourth in 11 Champions League matches (D2 L5), but a third in four this season (D1).

Die Werkself have won 49 European Cup matches.

City are unbeaten in 23 home group stage/league phase games (W20 D3), since a 1-2 Matchday 1 loss to Lyon in 2018/19.

Team news

Manchester City

Long-term absentees Mateo Kovacic and Rodri remain out for this fixture.

Bayer Leverkusen

The visitors will be without former Real Madrid man Lucas Vázquez, Ezequiel Fernandez and Exequiel Palacios for the trip to Manchester.

Predicted line-ups

Manchester City: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Rúben Dias, Joško Gvardiol, Nico González, Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden, Savinho, Jérémy Doku, Erling Haaland.

Bayer Leverkusen: Mark Flekken, Jarell Quansah, Loïc Badé, Edmond Tapsoba, Ernest Poku, Aleix García, Ibrahim Maza, Alex Grimaldo, Jonas Hofmann, Malik Tillman, Patrik Schick.