Southampton vs. Man City
Venue: St. Mary’s Stadium
Kick off: 4:30pm
Manchester City turn their attention back to the Premier League on Sunday (today) as they go to Southampton today after a bit of a no-show against Real Madrid in midweek.
Manuel Pellegrini’s side cannot win the title this season and they need to be careful of losing their place in the top four with neighbours Manchester United closing in.
The home side, after almost crashing the top-four party last season, have again had a solid campaign and come into this match eighth in the table, comfortably seven points clear of defending champions Chelsea below them.
Southampton are in good form having won four of their last six matches, last week becoming the latest side to swat away the challenge of rockbottom Aston Villa.
That match was away at Villa Park, but at home Ronald Koeman’s side have claimed victory in six of of their last eight games at St Mary’s.
City are finally in the mix in the Champions League after several years of failure in Europe’s elite competition.
Although facing 10-time champions Real Madrid is a daunting ask, it was probably the kindest draw they could have got, especially with Los Blancos missing superstar forward Cristiano Ronaldo for the first leg on Tuesday.
City are in good form in the league, though, having won four out of five unbeaten matches. Last weekend they put four past Stoke City and Kelechi Iheanacho impressed with a second-half brace.
Sergio Aguero also netted and the Argentine star has now scored in each of his last five Premier League appearances, but he has never scored in six in a row in the competition. Should he achieve that feat, he would go level with Harry Kane at the top of the scoring charts before Spurs play on Monday night.
Joe Hart could make his 300th Premier League appearance in this match and would be the sixth English goalkeeper to reach this landmark in the competition.
Southampton possible starting lineup: Forster, Martina, Van Dijk, Fonte, Bertrand, Clasie, Wanyama, Mane, Long, Tadic, Pelle.
Man City possible starting lineup: Hart, Zabaleta, Otamendi, Mangala, Kolarov, Delph, Fernando, Navas, Iheanacho, Sterling, Aguero.