The Argentine striker will lead the City line in the Danish capital with Erling Haaland reverting to the bench.
The other four changes from the side that beat Southampton 4-0 at the weekend see Aymeric Laporte, Sergio Gomez, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish also come into the starting line-up.
Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva also move to the bench for tonight’s trip to the Parken Stadium.
Teams
FC COPENHAGEN: Grabara, Khocholava, Claesson ©, Lerager, Daramy, Jelert, Boilesen, Lund, Haraldsson, Kristiansen, Stamenic.
Subs: Johnsson, Ryan, Diks, Sorensen, Johanneson, Mukairu, Ankersen, Clem, Roony
CITY XI: Ederson, Cancelo, Akanji, Laporte, Gomez, Rodrigo, Gundogan (c), De Bruyne, Mahrez, Grealish, Alvarez
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Dias, Ake, Haaland, Silva, Foden, Palmer, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand
Tactics
City look likely to once again line up in our favoured 4-3-3 formation.
With Ederson a familiar and commanding presence in goal, he will be shielded by a back four of Joao Cancelo, Manuel Akanji, Laporte and Gomez.
Rodrigo is set to be holding midfielder with skipper Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne also alongside the Spaniard in the City engine room.
Meanwhile, our attacking trident will see Alvarez lead the line with Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez deployed alongside him
Eyes on the prize
With three wins out of three so far in our Group G campaign, City will step out at the Parken Stadium in prime position to secure our place in the knockout stages.
A fourth consecutive group stage win tonight would seal the deal – but a draw would almost all but confirm our place in the last 16 too.
A point would then mean Sevilla – who travel to Borussia Dortmund in tonight’s later kick-off – would then have to get maximum points and beat us by more than our 4-0 win against them at their ground in order to progress.
With a trip to Borussia Dortmund still to navigate before a final group clash at home to Sevilla, it means the incentive is there for Pep Guardiola’s side to seal the deal which could allow us to rotate and refresh in those final two group encounters.
Stats
● FC København hosted Manchester City in the UEFA Cup in 2008-09, in a Last 32 first leg match. The game finished 2-2, with Nedum Onuoha and Stephen Ireland scoring for the visitors.
● Manchester City beat FC København 5-0 last time out – their best combined record against an opponent in a single UEFA Champions League campaign is 9-0 vs Shakhtar Donetsk in 2018-19 (3-0 A, 6-0 H).
● Manchester City’s last visit to Denmark saw them lose 2-0 to Aalborg BK in a UEFA Cup Last 16 second leg match in 2008-09. Having won the first leg 2-0 in Manchester City, the game went to penalties, with Manchester City progressing after winning the shootout.
● English teams are winless in their last two visits to Danish opponents in the UEFA Champions League, with Liverpool drawing 1-1 with FC Midtjylland in December 2020, and Leicester City drawing 0-0 with FC København in November 2016. The only instance of an English side losing away to a Danish side in this competition saw FC København defeat Manchester United during the group stages in 2006-07.
● FC København have only lost one of their 13 home games in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (W6 D6), while that lone defeat came against Real Madrid in December 2013; the team who would go on to win the tournament in that same season (2013-14).
● Since the start of last season, Manchester City have lost two of their four away games in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (0-2 v Paris Saint-Germain and 1-2 v RB Leipzig) – this is after going unbeaten in the group stages away from home between the 2018-19 and 2020-21 seasons (P9 W6 D3).
● Each of FC København’s last three home matches in the UEFA Champions League have finished goalless, the joint-longest run of consecutive home nil-nil’s in the competition, along with FC Porto between April-November 2004.
● City manager Pep Guardiola has a record of 15 wins and one draw from 16 matches against managers aged under 40 in the UEFA Champions League, seeing his teams score 54 goals while conceding only 10.
● FC København are one of two sides yet to score in the UEFA Champions League this season, the other being Rangers. København have never gone four games without scoring in the competition.
● City’s Erling Haaland has 28 goals in 22 appearances in the UEFA Champions League. His next strike in the competition will see him equal the goal tallies of David Trezeguet (58 apps), Roy Makaay (61 apps) and Patrick Kluivert (71 apps).
