Defending Champions Manchester City will begin their title defense with the visit of Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday. On Saturday, Pep Guardiola’s team overcame West Ham United 3-1 to keep their perfect league record. Cukaricki upset Red Star 2-1 in the Serbian SuperLiga.
Preview (Manchester City vs. Red Star Belgrade)
After finally winning the European championship against Inter Milan a few months ago, City is hoping to start their Champions League defense on a winning note. Unsurprisingly, Guardiola’s team has had a good start to the 2023–24 season. They earned all five wins in Premier League games. It included their most recent triumph over West Ham at the London Stadium. If the Cityzens had not come back after going behind before halftime, the game would have ended differently. Goals from Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva, and Erling Haaland secured all three points.
Haaland led the league in scoring the previous season. He struggled to find the back of the net for the majority of the match. He failed to take advantage of many good opportunities before his 86th-minute goal. Guardiola will be hoping that the lethal center-forward puts the Serbian team to the sword on Tuesday. The Norwegian failed to score in both the semifinal and the championship games of last year. With 12 goals, the Norwegian finished top of the scoring list on route to continental success. The away team, in contrast to the Cityzens, has stumbled lately. They have lost two of their previous three domestic games after starting the season strong.
The Serbian champions started their season with four straight wins. Two losses in three games have shown weakness at the worst possible time. They have six goals conceded in the last three games. Barak Bakhar’s team has struggled to retain clean sheets. In contrast, the Star won their first four league games without surrendering a goal, losing only one to Mladost 4-1 in August. Red Star are now considered the underdogs for the match on Tuesday in Manchester, where a win would be a miracle.
Team News
Guardiola will be without Kevin De Bruyne until the end of 2023, therefore the Belgian international will not be playing on Tuesday. Due to the absence of Mateo Kovacic, Jack Grealish, and John Stones, the City manager may only make minor adjustments to the lineup against West Ham on Saturday. Nathan Ake might possibly replace Stones at left or center defense.
The opposition is in good health going into their matchup with the European champions, giving Bakhar his entire roster. This year, the Red Star manager has alternated between a back four and a back three but is likely to start with the latter against Guardiola’s team. In order to open their Champions League defense with as many points as possible, it is difficult to imagine anything other than a simple victory for Guardiola’s team at the Etihad.
Manchester City 4 – 0 Red Star Belgrade
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