Man City vs Napoli Champions League: Preview, Predicted XI & Injury News

Coming off an excellent win in the Manchester Derby at the weekend, Manchester City are gearing up for a tough Champions League game against Antonio Conte’s Napoli on Thursday evening.

Napoli are in the midst of a spell of strong form. They are top of the Serie A table after winning all three of their opening games, defeating Sassuolo, Cagliari and Fiorentina.

City, meanwhile, have stumbled out of the starting gates in comparison. They demolished Wolves in their opening game of the season, but have since lost twice against Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton.

Napoli did not qualify for the Champions League last season – City, on the other hand, were knocked out in the knockout playoff round. As such, both teams will be looking to right the wrongs of the previous campaign.

Manchester City predicted XI

GK: Gianluigi Donnaruma

RB: Rico Lewis

CB: Josko Gvardiol

CB: Ruben Dias

LB: Nico O’Reilly

DM: Rodri

CM: Phil Foden

CM: Bernardo Silva

RW: Oscar Bobb

LW: Savinho

ST: Erling Haaland

Napoli predicted XI

GK: Vanja Milinković-Savić

RB: Giovanni Di Lorenzo

CB: Alessandro Buongiorno

CB: Juan Jesus

LB: Leonardo Spinazzola

DM: Stanislav Lobotka

CM: Kevin De Bruyne

CM: André-Frank Zambo Anguissa

RW: Matteo Politano

LW: Scott McTominay

ST: Rasmus Hojlund

Manchester City injury news

City have struggled with injury issues so far this season – they could be without as many as seven players for their game against the Neapolitans.

Mathis Cherki and Kalvin Phillips are both out on a long term basis. It’s unclear when Phillips will be fit to play again, but Cherki should be back in action in November.

Omar Marmoush and Mateo Kovacic have both been ruled out of the Napoli game, but could be fit to play again in October. Meanwhile, John Stones, Marcus Bettinelli and Rayan Ait-Nouri are all injury doubts – they could play against Napoli, but we will have to wait and see.

Who will win the game?

City looked like they were back to their brilliant best at the weekend as they tore apart Manchester United. It was an excellent display from the Sky Blues and it certainly will have put the league on notice.

If City perform like that against Napoli, they should have enough quality to see off the Serie A league leaders. No game against an Antonio Conte team is easy – but we think Pep Guardiola’s men should have enough to grind out a win tonight.

Final prediction: Manchester City 2-0 Napoli