UEFA Champions League: City v M'Gladbach - Match Thread

City take the pitch today needing a little bit of luck to finish top of Group D. As it stands, Juventus are top with 11 points, and City have 9. Both teams are guaranteed a spot in the knockout round, but only a win and a Juventus loss against Sevilla would see City top. Given the poor luck of drawing Barcelona in the knockout round the past two seasons, City should try everything possible to at least do our part of getting 3 points today. After that, it's out of our hands. Today is not the day for the players to give anything less than 100%.

Lineups from The Etihad:

City XI: Hart, Clichy, Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov, Toure (C), Fernandinho, Delph, Silva, De Bruyne, Sterling #cityvbmg #mcfc

— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) December 8, 2015

Subs: Caballero, Maffeo, Sagna, Adarabioyo, Celina, Navas, Bony #cityvbmg #MCFC

— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) December 8, 2015

Mönchengladbach XI vs Manchester City: Sommer; Christensen, Nordtveit, Elvedi, Wendt; Stindl, Xhaka, Dahoud, Korb, Johnson; Raffael.

— Squawka Football (@Squawka) December 8, 2015

So Pellegrini opts for a strikerless formation. Certainly an interesting tactic, one that we saw last season with Jim Milner up top while everyone else was injured. Bony is healthy though and on the bench. Sterling is most likely up top; can he grab a birthday goal? Elsewhere there are four changes for City as Clichy gives Sagna a rest at RB, Mangala is in for Demichelis, Toure is back for Fernando, and Delph plays behind him. Though it is strikerless, this still seems like a good lineup. There are 3 youth players on the bench as well as Sagna, Navas, and Bony.

Thoughts on the lineup? How do you see this one playing out? Comment away!