Representing his country at the Etihad Stadium for the first time, Joe believes that this pre-Euro 2016 friendly is a significant moment for the game in Manchester and is happy that supporters in the city have this rare opportunity to have international football on their doorsteps.
Hart is one of three City players who could feature in the exhibition match which kicks off at 17:15 on Sunday evening.
Hart said: “It’s exciting for me because I’ve played here for a number of years now and made many appearances, so I’m really pleased that we can bring an England game to Manchester.
“It’s not easy for supporters to get down to Wembley from here on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday night. We get great turnouts but it’s nice for supporters in Manchester to have an England game on their doorsteps this time.
“It’s huge for people in Manchester – we’ve got the new stand and it’s one of the top stadiums in Europe now so to have a national team like England before the Euros is a great thing for us.”
England boast a perfect record from their ten games in qualifying and go into this summer’s tournament as dark horses to win the competition.
Joe, who has been capped 57 times for his country, believes that the Three Lions are going to France with only one target in mind: to lift the trophy for the first time.
“We’ll have to go for it,” he declared. “We’ve got three weeks to mould ourselves, know each other inside out and be ready to hit the ground running.
“We believe it, there’s no point going if we don’t. But there’s a difference between thinking and doing.
“We’ll have the confidence and the backing we need but the main thing is to go there and perform.
“No team will be picked around the future. It’s all about now. We’re ready for this tournament, we’ll have plenty of support. I want us to win the tournament.”
We’ll bring you a report on how Joe, Fabian Delph and Raheem Sterling fare here on mcfc.co.uk on Sunday evening.
The full provisional squad is:
Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Fraser Forster (Southampton), Tom Heaton (Burnley)
Defenders: Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Chris Smalling (Manchester United), John Stones (Everton), Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur), Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool).
Midfielders: Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Ross Barkley (Everton), Fabian Delph (Manchester City), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Danny Drinkwater (Leicester City), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), James Milner (Liverpool), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Andros Townsend (Newcastle United), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)
Strikers: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
