Ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League meeting with Sevilla, Pep Guardiola was expected to ring the changes from Saturday’s 1-0 win over Leicester City. Manchester City have already won their group and made it into the knockouts, so they can afford to rest a number of first-team players.
Vital Man City predicted that Stefan Ortega, Sergio Gomez, Cole Palmer and Riyad Mahrez could come in for Ederson, Joao Cancelo, Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva respectively, and Guardiola has backed up that theory by confirming that out-of-favour players will get a chance to impress.
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He said in Tuesday’s pre-match press conference: “The players who haven’t played regularly will play, for sure. But let me see the training sessions today and tomorrow and we will see then. The players can see how good they are. We want to use as many players as possible.”
City are likely to switch up their backline as they have five central defenders battling for two places, but they don’t have much depth in midfield or attack so Guardiola can’t afford to rest every player he wants.
Kyle Walker is out with injury, so City are short of cover at right-back, but it remains to be seen whether fans could see Rico Lewis or Josh Wilson-Esbrand deployed on Wednesday.
City will back themselves to win against a Sevilla side they thrashed 4-0 in Spain earlier in the season, but the wholesale changes might lead to a closer encounter.
In other news, Man City confirm why Cole Palmer missed Saturday’s win over Leicester City
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