Many of the players involved in the game will be hoping to shake off the disappointment of the 2-1 defeat to Benfica in the UEFA Youth League quarter-final on Tuesday night.
Patrick Vieira’s men could count themselves extremely unfortunate to exit the competition after dominating the game against the Portuguese giants in front of a full house at Hyde’s Ewen Fields.
City can move up as high as fourth with a win over bottom-of-the-table Blackburn, though they currently have three games in hand over second place Fulham and Southampton in third.
They also have two games in hand on Liverpool in top spot and lie seven points behind the Merseysiders as it stands.
City’s last minute defeat to Southampton last time out in the league was their first at under-21 level in 12 games.
Marcos Lopes had given City had a 29th minute lead from the penalty spot with his tenth goal of the season, before Saints scored in the last minute of both halves to turn the game around.
Blackburn have won one league game in their last 15 attempts, though they did manage a creditable draw away at league leaders Liverpool in their last match on Friday 14 March.
They beat Newcastle at the start of the month in what was their first league win since the end of August.
City’s Premier League campaign is reaching its final stages, with just six games of the regular season still to play.
The Blues are well in contention to finish in the top four which would mean that they would qualify for the four-team knockout tournament to decide the 2013/14 champions at the end of April.
Just two of their remaining six games are against teams currently in the top half of the table and none of them are top six sides.
We’ll have live Twitter commentary of City EDS v Blackburn on our official account on Monday night, as well as a full match report, highlights and reaction on the site after the game.
It’s 19:00 kick-off and the post code for Leigh Sports Village is WN7 4JY.
