Celtic vs Manchester City, 2016 Champions League: Team News, Preview, Predictions

Manchester City will go for an eleventh consecutive victory to start the season when they take on Celtic FC on Wednesday night at Celtic Park. This will be the third match of a four-game road trip for City, and after a successful double-header in Swansea, Pep Guardiola hopes to get another victory before heading to White Hart Lane for a vital Premier League clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

Celtic were humiliated by Barcelona in their Champions League group stage opener, but the Bhoys will not be as easy to beat this time around. The Celtic Park will be packed with more than 60,000 fans that always create a special atmosphere for European nights, and the team will be motivated to show that the Barça loss was a coincidence, not the true quality of the side.

Will Pep cope with the Celtic pressure? Will the Citizens run over another team and keep the perfect start? Can Brendan Rodgers' men pull of a great upset in front of an insane home crowd?

This should be good (and tough).

Date/Time: Wednesday, September 28, 2016, 7:45pm local time (BST), 2:45pm ET, 11:45am PT (US), 12:15am IST (India, next day)

Venue: Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland

Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)

TV listings: Fox Sports 2 (US), TSN4 (Canada), BT Sport 2 (UK), TEN1 HD (India), elsewhere

Online streaming: Fox Sports GO, FoxSoccer2Go, WatchESPN (US), BT Sport Live Streaming (UK), elsewhere

TEAM NEWS

Man City: Pep Guardiola confirmed on his pre-match press conference the terrible news we already knew about: Kevin De Bruyne will miss the next 3-4 weeks with a hamstring injury after sustaining the problem in the weekend game against Swansea. The Belgian will recover in Barcelona with Pep's favorite doctor, and Kevin might be ready to face the Camp Nou giants in three weeks.

Captain Vincent Kompany, midfielder Fabian Delph and goalkeeper Angus Gunn are also out because of injury, with Yaya Touré and Aleix García also missing the trip because they weren't registered in the Champions League squad. Nolito returns since his suspension only applies to domestic competition, and the Spaniard will certainly start. Pep might rotate with Spurs in mind, but he might not. We don't know with him. Ever.

Celtic: Brendan Rodgers will reunite with his former Liverpool player Raheem Sterling, who earned first team promotion under Rodgers and played great football. The Celtic manager has only one major absentee in goalkeeper Dorus De Vries, who can't play through injury. Other than that, Rodgers can line up his favorite players, including former Citizen Scott Sinclair and current City loanee Patrick Roberts.

PREDICTION

This won't be easy at all, but Celtic will probably be more intense than organized, and City will eventually find gaps on their defense. 3-1 victory for the Sky Blues.