Everything You Need To Know: Olympique Marseille vs Manchester City (UEFA Champions League) | OneFootball

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City Xtra

·27 October 2020

Everything You Need To Know: Olympique Marseille vs Manchester City (UEFA Champions League)

Article image:Everything You Need To Know: Olympique Marseille vs Manchester City (UEFA Champions League)

Manchester City’s second fixture of the 2019-20 Champions League season sees them travel to France to visit Olympique Marseille. City opened their European campaign with a 3-1 win over Porto, while Marseille were defeated 1-0 by Olympiacos in Greece.

Guardiola’s men are coming off the back of a difficult 1-1 draw with West Ham, so they’ll be hoping to kickstart a good run of form with this game following mixed results so far.


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Team News:

Manchester City have a few important players missing but will be bolstered by the return of one or two important names.

Striker Gabriel Jesus is out with a thigh injury, while City’s only other regular striker Sergio Agüero was also injured during the West Ham game. Defender Benjamin Mendy is still out, but João Cancelo’s impressive performance over the weekend was a promising sight for the player that will potentially take the Frenchman’s place tomorrow.

Fernandinho made a brief cameo against Porto last week before getting injured – the 35-year-old will be out for another month or so. Although Nathan Aké hasn’t travelled with the squad, and in more positive news, Kevin De Bruyne and Aymeric Laporte were on the plane following returns from injury for both players.

For Marseille, only defenders Alvaró Gonzáles and Hiroki Sakai will miss the game, as both are suspended.

Article image:Everything You Need To Know: Olympique Marseille vs Manchester City (UEFA Champions League)

Head to Head:

Believe it or not, Manchester City and Marseille have never met in a competitive game before, nor has Guardiola ever managed against the French outfit in his career.

Andre Villas-Boas, however, does have some history with Manchester City. On three occasions, the Portuguese manager faced City with Tottenham. The 2012-13 season saw City beat Spurs 2-1 at home, before losing 3-1 at White Hart Lane. His most recent game against Manchester City was a 6-0 defeat in the following season.

Article image:Everything You Need To Know: Olympique Marseille vs Manchester City (UEFA Champions League)

Form Guide:

Manchester City have had a mixed start to the season – they have only eight points from five games meaning they currently sit 13th in the Premier League. Their last outing in Europe saw them defeat Porto 3-1. After going a goal down in the first half, goals from Sergio Agüero, Ilkay Gundogan, and Ferran Torres gave City a winning start to the Champions League campaign.

Marseille have had a slightly better start to their domestic season. After losing 2-0 to Saint-Etienne on the opening day, they have gone on a seven-game unbeaten run which included a 1-0 win over last year’s Ligue 1 champions PSG and a 1-1 draw with Lyon, who knocked City out of Europe last season.

They did, however, lose their opening game of the European campaign against Olympiacos courtesy of a 90th-minute header from striker Ahmed Hassan.

Article image:Everything You Need To Know: Olympique Marseille vs Manchester City (UEFA Champions League)

Match Officials:

The refereeing team for the game is an entirely German outfit – Tobias Stieler is the man in the middle for the fixture, while Mike Pickel and Christian Gittelmann will assist as linesmen.

The fourth official will be Florian Badstübner, while Sascha Stegemann and Harm Osmers will manage the VAR technology for the game.

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You can follow Danny on Twitter here: @dannyldnr

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