The State of Play
FC Copenhagen have not played competitive football since mid-December with the Danish Superliga currently on its winter break. The capital city club progressed through their UEFA Champions League group above both Manchester United and Galatasaray after an impressive campaign. They are, though, third in the aforementioned Superliga, sitting below both Midtjylland and Brondby.
Manchester City made it ten successive victories across all competitions at the weekend as they eventually defeated a stubborn Everton side by two goals to nil at the Etihad Stadium. Since a blip in late autumn, that occurred at the same time as having several injury concerns, City have since been magnificent and have scored 29 goals in those ten straight wins as they aim to do the ‘double treble’.
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Team News
Nicolai Boilesen, Theo Sander, David Khocholava and Birger Meling are among those that could potentially be missing through injury for Copenhagen, while Lukas Lerager will definitely miss out due to suspension.
Quite remarkably, Pep Guardiola and Manchester City are blessed with a fully-fit and available squad for this weekend after the recent return of several players such as John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland from injury.
Expected Line-ups
Copenhagen: Grabara; Ankersen, McKenna, Diks, Jelert; Mattsson, Falk, Diogo Gonçalves; Elyounoussi, Claesson, Achouri
Manchester City: Ederson; Walker, Akanji, Ake, Gvardiol; Kovacic, Rodri; Foden, De Bruyne, Doku; Haaland
What they Said
In the aftermath of the Round of 16 draw of the UEFA Champions League, Copenhagen boss Jonas Neestrup described facing Manchester City as ‘the most difficult draw possible’ and said that ‘they are the best team in the world.’
Following their 2-0 defeat of Everton at the weekend, Pep Guardiola discussed the fact that his City side are better for the return of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland. “With Erling and Kevin we are stronger, that’s obvious, but when a team loses the consistency, we have to be worried with the way they train, behave and run.”
When and How to Watch
This match will take place at the Parken Stadium on Tuesday February 13th at 20:00 and will be shown live on TNT Sports in the UK. It can also be streamed live via the TNT Sports app.
Prediction
As mentioned by Copenhagen’s own manager, this is arguably the toughest draw they could have got. They did, though, hold Manchester City to a goalless draw in Denmark last season in the group stages and have also performed very well at home this season against Bayern Munich, United and Galatasaray. City are firm favourites and should make it 11 straight wins but they haven’t quite hit their fluent best just yet so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a low-scoring away win.