team news
Recalled are Rico Lewis, John Stones, Josko Gvardiol and Bernardo.
Making way are Nico O’Reilly, Tijjani Reijnders, Phil Foden and Oscar Bobb
The City boss has a particularly strong bench at his disposal, should he require it.
CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Stones, Dias, Gvardiol, Nico, Lewis, Bernardo (C), Savinho, Doku, Haaland
Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Ake, Marmoush, Kovacic, Cherki, Bettinelli, Ait-Nouri, O’Reilly, Foden, Bobb
VILLARREAL XI: Luiz Junior, Mourino, Foyth (C), Renato Veiga, Pedraza, Gueye, Partey, Comesana, Buchanan, Pepe, Mikautadze
Subs: Conde, Tenas, Altimira, Marin, Solomon, Moreno, Parejo, Akhomach, Moleiro, Oluwaseyi, Perez, Cardona
WHEN AND WHERE
We travel to the Estadio de la Ceramica on Tuesday 21 October, with kick-off scheduled in Spain for 20:00 (UK).
The game will be shown live in the UK on TNT Sports 1 . You can also keep across all of the action via mancity.com and our official app, as well as the key moments on X/Twitter: @ManCity.
Supporters living around the world can find out how they can tune in via our global TV listings below, courtesy of liversoccertv.com
Next Fixture
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BST
OPPOSING MANAGER - MARCELINO
The 60-year-old etched his name into the record books back in August, becoming the manager with the most wins in the club’s history (124 across two spells) and the most matches in charge of the club, overtaking former City boss Manuel Pellegrini in both categories.
Marcelino led the Spanish side to their most recent promotion to La Liga in 2013, guided the team to the Europa League semi-finals in 2016, and secured Champions League qualification for them on two separate occasions (2016 and 2025).
The manager demands plenty of energy and aggression from his side and this will be the same under the floodlights on Tuesday night, and he prefers a traditional 4-4-2 formation, with two banks of four expected to try and nullify City’s attacking threat and the two up front tasked with breaking forward with pace.
DANGER MEN
Former Arsenal man Nicolas Pepe is the main threat and the winger has started the new season in Spain in superb form, establishing himself as one of La Liga’s most dangerous forwards.
His brilliant early form saw him claim the La Liga’s Player of the Month award at the start of the season and also got him a place in UEFA’s Team of the Week after a Player of the Match display in their 2-2 draw with Juventus, so City will need to keep a close eye on his attacking threat.
Their other threat comes from the other flank in the form of Canadian speedster Tajon Buchanan who is the team’s leading scorer with three in the league.
PEP GUARDIOLA PREVIEW
“Man City have made incredible steps forward in this competition in the last decade,” said the boss.
“We have another game to try to qualify for this round and tomorrow is another opportunity.
“We score lot of goals, create a lot of clear chances and concede not much.
“But tomorrow is another test. It is not defining now. We talk a lot about what we can do better, read better situations. That’s what we need.”
PREVIOUS MEETING
Our last visit to Villarreal came back in November 2011 in the group stage, where we moved into second spot in Group A with a comfortable 3-0 victory thanks to Yaya Toure’s double and a Mario Balotelli goal.
We hosted them at the Etihad a month earlier, where Sergio Aguero’s 93rd minute winner saw us claim our first ever victory in the prestigious competition.
Villarreal v City App coverage
Our official app allows you to follow all of the action from our Champions League clash against Villarreal in one place.
Minute-by-minute text updates will begin in our Matchday Centre two hours before kick-off, while our Matchday Live show will begin at around 18:45 (UK).
Scott Carson and Nedum Onuoha will be the guests on the latest Matchday Live show alongside presenter Natalie Pike, offering their expert insight before, during and after the action.
During the game you can also listen to live audio commentary from Alistair Mann and Steve Howey while our text commentary continues.
Make sure to have push notifications turned on as well, so you can be alerted to key moments in the action, including goals, red cards and the team news.
We’ll have a quick-hit 2-minute highlights package available.
On CITY+ meanwhile, there’ll be our popular full-match replay as well as our new extended highlights offering which features the best 20 minutes of action from the game.
All are available at Midnight (UK) on Tuesday and 18:00 (Global) on Wednesday.
LAST TIME OUT
Our last Champions League game saw us held to a 2-2 draw away to AS Monaco, after late VAR drama saw the hosts awarded a penalty.
In league terms, Erling Haaland’s double inspired us to a 2-0 victory over Everton on Saturday afternoon.
As for Villarreal, they scored a late equaliser to hold Italian giants to a 2-2 draw also, with Renato Veiga’s late header earning a crucial point.
In La Liga action, they drew 2-2 with Real Betis, going 2-0 up before conceding a double from former Manchester United forward Antony.
MATCH OFFICIALS
TBC
GLOBAL TV LISTINGS
Supporters living around the world can find out how they can tune in via our global TV listings by clicking here, courtesy of liversoccertv.com.
(Listings correct as of Sunday 19 October)
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