Manchester City, The Champions League winners take on The Europa League winners Sevilla tonight in the final of The UEFA Super Cup. City by winning Champions League title last season, created history by winning a treble as well. It was Man City’s first ever UCL title. Pep and his team had only one major title that was missing from their trophy cabinet. Finally, winning the Champions League has given Pep Guardiola the chance to complete the trophy set with City, starting from today. It will be City’s first appearance in the UEFA Super Cup.
On the other hand, Sevilla might be getting used to winning The Europa League. They are the most successful team in the history of the Europa League. The Spanish club has won the competition a spectacular seven times. As a result, they have already played in The Super Cup six times before. Sevilla also won title in 2021, when they had beaten the 2020/21 UCL winners, Chelsea.
Team News and Updates
Manchester City began their new season’s campaign spectacularly. They thrashed Burnley 3-0 in The Premier League and their star man Erling Haaland scored a brace. City fans were also delighted to see their record signing Josko Gvardiol make his debut for the club. A great news for fans was also the return of Nathan Aké from injury. However, the absence of John Stones and Ruben Dias was a thing of concern. Pep, later, cleared that the injuries are not serious, but the players will not be fit for today’s game. The biggest blow for City came during Friday’s game only. They saw their captain Kevin De Bruyne go off the field in the first half itself due to an injury. Sources have confirmed that KDB will be out for atleast 4 months due to a knee injury, a massive concern for City.
Sevilla are also dealing with the injuries of some of their important players. It is a major reason why Sevilla haven’t had the best of the starts to their new season. They lost 2-1 to Valencia in their opening game, with Baldé also being sent off in the 81st min. According to Fox Sports, Sevilla will be without 3 players for the clash against City. Tanguy Nianzou is still sidelined due to a hamstring injury. Despite positive updates about his injury, he will not be available for today’s match. Marcao is also going to miss today’s game due to an undisclosed injury. Fernando, unlike Tanguy and Marcao, played against Valencia and is not dealing with any injuries. However, he is down with viral infection due to which he is expected to not feature in today’s clash.
Predicted Line-Ups For City and Sevilla
With the injuries, both the sides are expected not to be at their strongest self. However, with the squad depth that City have, it doesn’t look like the injuries are going to be a very concerning thing for them. Here is how we expect Man City to line up today -:
3-2-4-1
Ederson
Walker(c), Gvardiol, Aké
Rico Lewis, Rodri
B. Silva, Alvarez, Kovaciç, Grealish
Haaland
It is expected that Pep will play his most trusted players, but a few changes can be expected to their Starting XI against Burnley. Kovaciç is expected to come in for KDB, Grealish for Foden and Gvardiol might replace Akanji, who struggled a bit against Burnley.
Sevilla are expected to play the same XI as they did against Valencia with just one change of Fernando. José Mendilibar will be looking to play his strongest XI despite a hectic clash against Valencia. Here’s how we think Sevilla’s starting XI will look like -:
4-2-3-1
Bounou
Navas(c), Balde, Gudelj, Acuña
Djibril Sow, Ivan Rakitiç
Ocampos, Suso, Erik Lamela
En-Neysri
Predictions For The Match
It is a highly anticipated game and it is expected to be a great contest. Even though Man City are the favourites to win, you can never undermine Sevilla. They are a team famous for giving shocks. Therefore, it is expected to be a well matched game. However, the first game of the season for both team gives as an indication of what lies ahead for us. While Sevilla don’t look their strongest, Man City look dominant as ever. The form, shape and the confidence with which they are playing, it seems unlikely for them to lose to any team, let alone Sevilla.
Prediction -> Man City 3-0 Sevilla
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