Manchester City vs. Bayern Munich preview: Team news and predicted lineups
Here is our preview of Tuesday's Champions League quarter-final first-leg clash between Manchester City and Bayern Munich, including predicted lineups.
| Dayot Upamecano returns for Bayern after serving a one-match suspension against Freiburg. | Photo: Steffen Prößdorf, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Having won all eight of their Champions League games so far this season, Bayern will be looking to maintain their perfect record and put themselves in a strong position for the return leg at the Allianz Arena in a week's time.
"The team have every right to be confident. We need to build on the results from the Champions League," said Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel.
He added that his players must produce a "complete performance" to get a result against Pep Guardiola's men.
"We'll only be able to solve it as a unit, with hard work and willingness. It's not just a technical and tactical matter," noted the Bayern coach.
With their technically demanding, possession-based style, Man City often find themselves playing against teams that sit back, but Guardiola is expecting a different approach from his former side.
“[In] my point of view, Bayern is not a team built to just think it is going to happen second leg, it’s built to come here to win,” said Guardiola, who coached Bayern between 2013 and 2016.
“From my experience when I was there, I had the feeling it doesn’t matter where you play, you have to be Bayern Munich and you have to try to win.
“If they defend maybe more than usual it’s because we’re doing well. But if we are not doing well we are going to defend more than usual," explained Guardiola, who watched his side beat Southampton 4-1 on Saturday.
In addition to the long-term injured Manuel Neuer and Lucas Hernandez, Bayern will once again be without Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who is out with a knee injury. Serge Gnabry replaced the Cameroonian striker up front in Saturday's 1-0 win over Freiburg, and could play in that role again.
"There's nothing against Serge Gnabry playing as the nine. He maybe doesn't have the size, but neither do Thomas Müller nor Sadio Mané. We'll also miss Choupo at defensive set pieces. Thomas plays best around a striker. Sadio can also play up front," Tuchel said at the pre-match press conference.
Manchester City will be without Phil Foden (appendix), but otherwise have a full squad available.
Here are our Manchester City vs. Bayern Munich lineup predictions.