Atalanta v Manchester City, UEFA Champions League Matchday 4: Team News, Preview and Prediction

Date/Time: Atalanta vs Manchester City – Wednesday 6^th November 2019, 20:00 GMT (UK); 15:00 EST, 12:00 PST (USA)

Venue: San Siro Stadium, Milan, Italy

Match Officials:

Referee:

Aleksei Kulbakoŭ (BLR)

Assistant Referee 1: Dzmitri Zhuk (BLR)

Assistant Referee 2: Alieh Maslianka (BLR)

Fourth Official: Dzianis Scharbakoŭ (BLR)

VAR: Clément Turpin (FRA)

AVAR: Amaury Delerue (FRA)

Referee Observer: Terje Hauge (NOR)

Live Stream: BT Sport Live (UK); Bleacher Report Live (USA) BBC Radio 5 live and BBC local radio; text commentary on the BBC Sport website

Manchester City travel to Atalanta in the Champions League, looking for a win which will send them through to the last sixteen of the competition. The blues thrashed the Italians 5-1 in Manchester two weeks ago, and victory will send the blues through with two games remaining.

Raheem Sterling scored a hat-trick in that tie, with Sergio Aguero bagging two goals as the blues recovered from the shock of conceding to the Champions League newcomers. The blues have won all three matches so far in the group stage and can afford the luxury of resting some players, however manager Pep Guardiola has said he will not rotate his squad for the tie.

“I want to qualify as soon as possible; I’m not thinking about rotating,” the boss said ahead of the tie. “We will try to win, but if not, there is Shakhtar at home and Dinamo Zagreb away.”

Due to Atalanta’s Gewiss Stadium not meeting UEFA requirements, the match will be played at the San Siro, which is home to both AC and Inter Milan. Atalanta are currently bottom of Group C, having lost all their opening three matches and scoring just twice.

Despite this, Atalanta defender Rafael Toloi has said his team are in their ‘rightful place’ amongst Europe’s elite. “We’ve earned to the right to play such opponents,” said Toloi. “Manchester City have super players, Sterling is very fast, so we’ll have to be aggressive and very careful in the markings. We know that with our fans at home we can do well.”

Team News

David Silva is not in the squad after he suffered a muscular problem in the win over Southampton at the weekend, while midfielder Phil Foden is ruled out of the match following his red card in the victory in Manchester.

Atalanta will still be without forward Duvan Zapata, who suffered a thigh injury while on international duty with Colombia.

Prediction:

I’m not being biased when I say this, but I think City will be too strong for the Italians. I think the home side will give it a good go and it certainly won’t be as straightforward as the match at the Etihad two weeks ago, but I’m still going for a City win.

Atalanta 0-2 Manchester City